Unlocking the potential of rice bean (Vigna umbellata): Emerging source of bioactives for future foods and food security

Underutilized legumes represent an untapped frontier in food, nutrition, and health security. Among them, rice bean ( Vigna umbellata ) stands out for its nutritional richness, ecological resilience, and therapeutic potential, yet remains marginalized in global food systems. Despite its adaptability to heat, drought, and marginal soils, it suffers from limited phytochemical profiling. Similarly, sparse genomic and omics resources, and weak translational evidence linking bioactives to human health. This review compiles advances in phytochemical mapping, highlighting regional variations in flavonoids, phenolic acids, bioactive peptides, and low-glycemic starch. Comparative positioning against major legumes underscores its potential compositional advantages associated with antioxidant and metabolic relevance. Emerging genomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, and proteomic studies reveal untapped breeding potential, while systems biology and AI-driven omics integration promise accelerated trait improvement. We argue for positioning rice bean as a climate-smart crop within circular and sustainable farming systems, with roles in nitrogen fixation, metabolic health, and functional food innovation. Bridging policy frameworks, market incentives, and interdisciplinary collaborations is critical to elevate rice bean from orphan status to a strategic crop for nutrition-sensitive agriculture. This narrative review synthesizes current compositional, multi-omics, and systems-level evidence on rice bean ( Vigna umbellata ), without employing a systematic literature search or meta-analytical framework. It is concluded with a translational roadmap, outlining integrative research priorities across plant sciences, pharmacology, and socioeconomics to unlock rice bean’s potential as a cornerstone of future-ready food systems.