The mung bean (Vigna radiata) is a genus of cowpea in the leguminous family, butterfly-flower subfamily. It is also known as "Qingxiao Dou", "Zhidou", "Jiaodou", "Wendou", "Eight Reborn", "Parodou".

Annual herbs; Plant height 20-150 cm. Stem cross-section is round, young stem purple or green, mature stem gray yellow or brown. The taproot is not developed, the lateral roots are many and slender, and there are nodules on the roots. The leaves are oval or broadly oval, the cotyledon dies after being unearthed, and three compound leaves are produced on the two single leaves. The leaves are 6-12 cm long and 5-10 cm wide. The stems have many branches, and can be divided into upright clumping type, semi-trailing type and trailing type according to their morphology. Racemes, yellow in axillary and apex, with 10-25 flowers per pedicel, self-pollinating. The fruit is a long cylindrical or flat cylindrical pod, usually 30-50 per plant. The pod is 5-10 cm long and 0.4-0.6 cm wide, and contains 12-14 septate separated seeds, which are green, yellow, brown, blue and other colors, and can be cylindrical or spherical.

It is native to India and Myanmar. Now it is widely cultivated in East Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States also have a small amount of cultivation, and China, Myanmar and other countries are the main exporters of mung beans.

Mung bean is a heat-averse, short-day crop; It can be sown in spring (late April to early mid-May) and summer (mid-June to late June). The growth cycle is about 70 to 110 days. The best varieties yield around 150 kg (330 pounds) per acre. Because of the shade tolerance of mung beans and the nitrogen-fixing effect of rhizobium in the roots of mung beans, mung beans can often be interplanted with other crops in the actual planting process, such as corn, grains, sesame and so on. The main insect pests in mung bean planting were mung bean elephant, aphids, armyworm and meadow borer. The main diseases are rust, leaf spot, downy mildew and so on.

Although it is rare to see doctors prescribe mung beans as a prescription, it does have quite good effects. In addition to mung bean grains, including mung bean skin, mung bean pods, mung bean flowers and mung bean sprouts all have therapeutic effects.

Direct consumption, traditional Chinese medicine believes that mung beans taste sweet and cool, have the effect of clearing heat and fire, with the skin of mung beans cooked soup (mung bean paste, mung bean soup) or rice porridge (mung bean porridge) is the traditional summer heat relief food in Asia, mung beans contain inorganic salts and minerals can supplement the human body due to a lot of sweat lack of corresponding substances. Mung bean skin is also used as a Chinese medicine ingredient, "Compendium of Materia Medica" recorded "Mung bean: sweet, cold. Mung bean powder: sweet, cool, flat. Doupi: Sweet, cold. Bean sprouts: sweet, flat." Green bean pods can cure chronic bleeding. Modern research has found that because the plant sterols contained in mung beans can replace cholesterol so that it is not absorbed by the body, mung beans also have the effect of lowering cholesterol. In India, mung beans are peeled (mung bean kernels, which resemble giant versions of millet) and used to add to dishes such as curries.