Bai Bian Dou

Lablab purpureus, known synonymously as Dolichos lablab and as hyacinth bean or Bai Bian Dou, is a vigorous, climbing or trailing perennial legume in the Fabaceae, often grown as an annual. Stems are twining, reaching 3 to 6 meters, sometimes more, with trifoliate leaves whose leaflets are broadly ovate-rhombic and 7 to 15 cm long, glabrous or with sparse pubescence. The flowers are arranged in long axillary racemes, papilionaceous, typically white, pink or purple, fragrant, and followed by flattened, oblong, often purple-tinged pods 4 to 12 cm long containing three to six seeds. The seeds vary in colour from white through brown to black, with a prominent white linear hilum. Native to tropical Africa and now pantropical, the plant is widely cultivated in China, India and Southeast Asia as a pulse, vegetable and fodder. In traditional Chinese medicine the ripe white-seeded form provides Bai Bian Dou, used to tonify the Spleen and resolve dampness.