Mung bean is a characteristic minor grain crop in China, a traditional medicine and food homologous material, and an important dry pulse in the world. Mung bean is high in protein, starch and rich in non-starch polysaccharides, polyphenols, flavonoids and other nutritional components, which makes it a popular research object of health food and functional activity among grain crops. This paper reviewed the research progress of mung bean nutritional components and functional ingredients (polyphenols, polysaccharides, functional proteins or peptides) and its antioxidant, lipid-lowering and hypoglycemic activities at home and abroad in recent years. Meanwhile, the research and industrial application of mung bean in new plant-based food were introduced, in order to provide reference for mung bean research and application in the future under the theoretical framework of modern nutrition and food science.