Muxi Green Beans

Muxi Green Beans

　　Green beans are annual herbaceous plants. Their stems grow upright or climb. They have trifoliate leaves and butterfly-shaped flowers in greenish-yellow. The seed pods are round and slender, containing rectangular, green seeds. They belong to the legume family. Originally native to China, they are now widely cultivated. Green bean seeds are edible and also used in traditional medicine for clearing heat and detoxifying the body. They can be made into cooling summer beverages. Green beans were historically also known as vegetable beans, wen beans, or zhi beans. China has a long history of cultivating green beans, with abundant varieties and one of the highest total yields in the world. Major green bean-producing countries include China, India, Thailand, Afghanistan, and the Philippines, especially China, India, and Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand and the Philippines. In China, green beans are grown in the Yellow River and Huai River basins, as well as across provinces in the North China Plain. Provinces with significant production include Sichuan, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Liaoning. Within Sichuan, the southwestern region—E'mei, Jianwei, Muxi, and Mabian—is particularly renowned for high-quality green beans. Nearly 100,000 mu of land in this area produces green beans with vivid green color and plump grains, which are highly favored by merchants in Southeast Asia and southern China. The green bean-growing regions in our city are located in unpolluted environments with fertile soil and favorable climatic conditions, making them ideal for growing green beans.

Green beans are not only an indispensable food in people’s daily lives but also one of the important export commodities in our city. Rich in protein, starch, various minerals, multiple B vitamins, and amino acids, green beans have a wide range of uses and are hailed as the "green pearls" among grain crops. They serve both as a versatile dietary staple and a crucial ingredient in the food processing and brewing industries, as well as an important medicinal plant.

According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, green beans can be used to treat food poisoning symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, irritability, and discomfort. They are especially effective against summer febrile illnesses, with the green bean husk being even more potent. Green beans have diuretic and detoxifying properties and can treat skin infections such as erysipelas, swelling, pain, and boils. They help relieve summer heat, cure mumps, stomach pain, cirrhosis-related ascites, diabetes, hiccups, ulcerative skin diseases, painful abscesses, eczema, dermatitis itching with discharge, prickly heat, mumps, pesticide poisoning, arsenic poisoning, lead poisoning, burns and scalds, alcohol poisoning, hemorrhoids or anal fissures, pregnancy edema, urinary tract stones, and acne.