Soybean Physiology

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Posted by: nantha, on 9/3/2007, in category "Organic cultivation Techniques for Various crops"
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Location: Thanjavur, Tamilndau, India

Abstract: Information about Soybean and its unique chemical composition.

Soybean is a valuable agricultural commodity due to its unique chemical composition. The soybean seed consists of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and minerals. Other valuable components found in soybeans include phospholipids, vitamins and minerals. On average, oil and protein together consitute about 60% of dry soybeans. The remaining dry matter is componsed mainly of carbohydrates (35%) and ash (5%).

Nine fatty acids make up the lipid content of soybeans [98]. During seed development, soybeans store their lipids, mainly in the form of triglycerides, in organelles known as oil bodies. The soybean contains 20% oil, the second highest oil content among food legumes. The highest oil content is found in peanut, with about 48% oil; the third highest oil content is found in chickpeas, with about 5%. Crude soy oil contains impurities such as phosphatides, free fatty acids, gummy substances, color bodies, hydrocarbons and a waxy fraction. Refining operations remove these impurities. Nineteen amino acids make up the protein content of soybean flour, including the essential amino acids, lycine, isoleucine, leucine and valine [98]. Among cereal and other legume species, soybean has the highest protein content, about 40%. Other legumes have a protein content between 20 and 30%, whereas cereals have a protein content in the range of 8-15%.

Some of the proteins in soybeans are enzymes. The enzymes in soybeans have catalytic activity. Catalysts increase the rate at which chemical reactions take place, but they do not cause a reaction to take place. They control the rate at which chemical reactions take place in the plant. Each enzyme is specialized in the reaction that it catalyzes. For example, certain enzymes act as catalysts in the soybean plant’s production of the essential amino acids.

A typical soybean plant cell contains at least 10,000 different enzymes. As long as conditions are favorable, enzymes will catalyze repeatedly their respective chemical reactions.