Koro Pedang Beans: Local Functional Food Ready to Become the New Favorite
Indonesians’ interest in healthy food products continues to grow, especially in the last two decades. Changes in lifestyle, increased exposure to health information, and growing awareness of the relationship between food and disease prevention have led the public to seek food sources that are not only filling but also provide additional physiological benefits. The functional food trend, which was previously dominated by imported products, is now generating new interest in local commodities.
Koro pedang is a legume that has long been cultivated in various regions of Indonesia. Unfortunately, this plant is often viewed as an “inferior food” that is less popular than soybeans. In fact, currently, more than 80 percent of the national demand for soybeans is still met by imports, making the price of soybean-based products increasingly unstable and vulnerable to global fluctuations. This situation is a wake-up call that Indonesia needs to diversify its local protein sources to be more economically and ecologically resilient.
Koro pedang has great potential to be developed as an alternative food source to overcome soybean imports, both economically and health-wise. Nutritionally, koro pedang has a high protein content of more than 25 percent, making it a potential source of cheap and sustainable plant-based protein.
In addition, sword beans contain various bioactive compounds such as antioxidants, bioactive peptides, and natural antimicrobial compounds that play a role in boosting the immune system, reducing oxidative stress, and supporting metabolic health. These characteristics make sword beans not just a food ingredient, but a functional food with additional health benefits.
In recent years, various studies have begun to reveal that bioactive peptides resulting from the hydrolysis of sword bean protein have antihypertensive activity through the inhibition of the ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) enzyme, as well as the potential to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus through the inhibition of the DPP-IV (dipeptidyl peptidase-IV) enzyme.
These findings reinforce the position of swordfish as a candidate functional food that provides physiological benefits relevant to current health issues in Indonesia. These issues range from the increasing prevalence of hypertension to the alarming incidence of diabetes mellitus.
Despite its great potential, the development of koro pedang still faces challenges, namely the sensory properties of bioactive peptides in food that affect consumer acceptance, such as bitterness due to the high content of hydrophobic amino acids in koro pedang bean protein. Therefore, process optimization is needed to achieve a balance between bioactivity and sensory properties, especially the level of bitterness.
As demand for healthy and sustainable food increases, this presents a strategic opportunity to re-elevate the value of local food through sword bean-based product innovations. This could pave the way for sword beans to enter modern markets and become part of a healthy lifestyle for communities.
Aufa Hanun Zahiyah
Student, Food Science and Technology Program
