Background: It is a widespread belief in Asian countries that mung bean soup (MBS) may afford a protective effect against
heat stress. Lack of evidence supports MBS conferring a benefit in addition to water.
Results: Here we show that vitexin and isovitexin are the major antioxidant components in mungbean (more than 96% of
them existing in the bean seed coat), and both of them could be absorbed via gavage into rat plasma. In the plasma of rats
fed with mungbean coat extract before or after exposure to heat stress, the levels of malonaldehyde and activities of lactate
dehydrogenase and nitric oxide synthase were remarkably reduced; the levels of total antioxidant capacity and glutathione
(a quantitative assessment of oxidative stress) were significantly enhanced.