Soybean

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"Soy" redirects here. For other uses, see Soy (disambiguation).

Soybean

Scientific classification

Kingdom:

Plantae

(unranked):

Angiosperms

(unranked):

Eudicots

(unranked):

Rosids

Order:

Fabales

Family:

Fabaceae

Subfamily:

Faboideae

Genus:

Glycine

Species:

G. max

Binomial name

Glycine max

(L.) Merr.

Synonyms[1]

Dolichos
soja L.

Glycine
angustifolia Miq.

Glycine
gracilis Skvortsov

Glycine
hispida (Moench)

Maxim.

Glycine
soja sensu

auct.

Phaseolus
max L.

Soja
angustifolia Miq.

Soja
hispida Moench

Soja

japonica Savi

Soja
max (L.)

Piper

Soja soja H.

Karst.

Soja
viridis Savi

The soybean in the US, also called the soya bean in Europe (Glycine max) is a species
of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. The plant
is classed as an oilseed rather than a pulse by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
[2]

Fat-free (defatted) soybean meal is a significant and cheap source of protein for animal feeds and
many packaged meals; soy vegetable oil is another product of processing the soybean crop. For
example, soybean products such as textured vegetable protein (TVP) are ingredients in many meat
and dairy analogues. Soybeans produce significantly more protein per acre than most other uses of
land.
[3]

[4]

Traditional nonfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, and from the latter tofu and tofu
skin. Fermented foods include soy sauce, fermented bean paste, natto, and tempeh, among others.
The oil is used in many industrial applications. The main producers of soy are the United States
(36%), Brazil (36%), Argentina (18%), China (5%) and India (4%). The beans contain significant
amounts of phytic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, andisoflavones.
[5][6]

Contents
[hide]

1 Name

2 Classification

3 Description

4 Nitrogen-fixing ability

5 Chemical composition of the seed

5.1 Nutrition

5.1.1 Comparison to other major staple foods

6 Soy protein

7 Cultivation

8 History

8.1 Asia

8.2 North America

8.3 South America

8.4 Africa

8.5 Australia

8.6 Canada

8.7 Caribbean and West Indies

8.8 Central Asia

8.9 Mexico and Central America

8.10 Southeast Asia

8.11 South Asia and Indian Subcontinent

8.12 Europe

8.13 Austria and Switzerland

8.14 France

8.15 Greece

8.16 Italy

8.17 Spain and Portugal

9 Genetic modification

10 Uses

10.1 Oil

10.2 Meal

10.3 Flour

10.4 Soy-based infant formula

10.5 Meat and dairy alternatives and extenders

10.6 Soynut butter

10.7 Other products

10.8 Cattle feed

11 Health benefits

11.1 Lunasin

11.2 Cancer

11.3 Alpha-linolenic acid

11.4 Natural phenols

11.4.1 Isoflavones

11.4.2 Glyceollins

11.5 Cholesterol and heart diseases

11.6 Phytic acid

12 Health risks

12.1 Allergy

12.2 Phytoestrogen

12.2.1 Women

12.2.2 Men

12.3 Brain

12.4 Carcinogenicity

12.5 Gout

13 Futures

14 See also

15 References

16 External links

Name[edit]
The plant is known as the "large bean" in Chinese and Japanese (Chinese:
; pinyin: ddu; Japanese romaji: daizu) or "yellow bean" (Chinese: ; pinyin: hungdu). Both
the immature soybean and its dish are called edamame in Japan, but in English,edamame refers
only to a specific dish.
The genus name, Glycine, is the same as a simple amino acid.
[7][8]

[citation needed]

Since the early twentieth century soybeans have been called the 'golden bean' or 'miracle bean' in
America. The English words "soy" and "soya" are ultimately derived from the Japanese
pronunciation of shyu ( ), the Sino-Japanese word for soy sauce, through
the German adaptation of the same word, soja.
[9]

[10]

Classification[edit]

Varieties of soybeans are used for many purposes.

The genus Glycine Willd. is divided into two subgenera, Glycine and Soja. The
subgenus Soja (Moench) F.J. Herm. includes the cultivated soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., and the
wild soybean, Glycine soja Sieb. & Zucc. Both species are annuals. Glycine soja is the wild ancestor
of Glycine max, and grows wild in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Russia.
The subgenus Glycine consists of at least 25 wild perennial species: for example, Glycine
canescensF.J. Herm. and G. tomentella Hayata, both found in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Perennial soybean (Neonotonia wightii) originated in Africa and is now a widespread pasture crop
in the Tropics.
[11]

[12]

[13]

[14][15][16]

Like some other crops of long domestication, the relationship of the modern soybean to wild-growing
species can no longer be traced with any degree of certainty. It is a cultural variety with a very large
number of cultivars.
[citation needed]

Description[edit]
Soy varies in growth and habit. The height of the plant varies from less than 0.2 to 2.0 m (0.66 to
6.56 ft).
The pods, stems, and leaves are covered with fine brown or gray hairs. The leaves are trifoliolate,
having three to four leaflets per leaf, and the leaflets are 615 cm (2.45.9 in) long and 27 cm
(0.792.76 in) broad. The leaves fall before the seeds are mature. The inconspicuous, self-fertile
flowers are borne in the axil of the leaf and are white, pink or purple.

Small, purple soybean flowers

The fruit is a hairy pod that grows in clusters of three to five, each pod is 38 cm long (13 in) and
usually contains two to four (rarely more) seeds 511 mm in diameter.
Soybeans occur in various sizes, and in many hull or seed coat colors, including black, brown, blue,
yellow, green and mottled. The hull of the mature bean is hard, water-resistant, and protects
the cotyledon and hypocotyl (or "germ") from damage. If the seed coat is cracked, the seed will
not germinate. The scar, visible on the seed coat, is called the hilum (colors include black, brown,
buff, gray and yellow) and at one end of the hilum is the micropyle, or small opening in the seed coat
which can allow the absorption of water for sprouting.
Remarkably, seeds such as soybeans containing very high levels of protein can
undergo desiccation, yet survive and revive after water absorption. A. Carl Leopold, son of Aldo
Leopold, began studying this capability at theBoyce Thompson Institute for Plant
Research at Cornell University in the mid-1980s. He found soybeans and corn to have a range of
soluble carbohydrates protecting the seed's cell viability. Patents were awarded to him in the early
1990s on techniques for protecting "biological membranes" and proteins in the dry state.
[17]

Nitrogen-fixing ability[edit]
Many legumes (alfalfa, clover, lupins, peas, beans, lentils, soybeans, peanuts and others)
contain symbiotic bacteria called Rhizobia within nodules of their root systems. These bacteria have
the special ability of fixing nitrogenfrom atmospheric, molecular nitrogen (N ) into ammonia (NH ).
The chemical reaction is:
2

[18]

N + 8 H + 8 e 2 NH + H
+

Ammonia is then converted to another form, ammonium (NH ), usable by (some) plants by the
following reaction:
4

NH + H NH
3

This arrangement means that the root nodules are sources of nitrogen for legumes, making
them relatively rich in plant proteins.