Introduction

• Erect, bushy, densely branched annual shrub.
• Seed: rounded or slightly oval, light yellow or yellowish with tinge of different colors.
• 1000 seed-weight: 120-180 g but may vary from 40-400 g.

Importance

• High energy content: 335 Cal/100g.
• Important source of fat and protein. (Best and cheapest source of protein).
• Well balanced amino acid in soybean protein.
• Ideal food for diabetic patient due to high protein and low CHO.
• Ideal food for patients with nervous disorder due to high P content.
• Soy-milk, soy-cheese (extracts from seed): useful for infant feeding.
• Major source of vegetable oil.
• Soybean cake as a vital concentrate for poultry and livestock.
• It improves soil fertility (N fixation: 60-168kg/ha/year) and controls the parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica.
• Industrial use: manufacture of paint, enamels, plastics antibiotics.

Origin and Distribution

• Domestication of soybean in North-Eastern China.
• Native to Northern, North-eastern and Central China.
• Major producers: USA, Brazil, China, India, Canada etc.

Soybean growth and development

• Dicotyledonous plant with epigeal emergence.
• The soil-penetrating structure is the hypocotyl arch.
• Leaves are trifoliate and consist of three leaflets.
• Vegetative stages covers emergence to flowering.
• Reproductive stage implies flowering to maturation.