ABSTRACT
The soybean plant ( Glycine max ) is the world’s most widely cultivated and economically successful legume. Most soybeans cultivated are used as the raw materials for oil milling, and the residues are mainly used as feedstuffs for domestic animals. Soybean is a good dietary source of protein and oil. Soybean requires considerably more cooking time than other legumes to have a palatable texture, which may be part of the reason for the use of soybean as processed foods in East Asian countries. Cultivated soybean is composed of approximately 8% hull, 90% cotyledons, and 2% hypocotyl axis. Thus, cotyledon contains the highest percentage of both protein and oil, whereas other components such as isoflavones are concentrated in the hypocotyl axis. Soybean is probably the most efficient protein source in terms of cultivation size and protein content. Dry soybean contains approximately 35% protein a storage protein. Soybean contains approximately 20% oil, of which the triglyceride is the major component.
