Vineet Kumar ¹, Anita Rani ¹, Devendra Pratap ¹, Lokesh Goyal ¹, S. D. Billore ¹

Affiliations
1 Biochemistry Lab, Directorate of Soybean Research, Indore-452017, IN

Abstract

Vegetable-type soybean (VSB) differs from the conventional grain-type soybean in large seed size, sweet taste and pleasant aroma. VSB has been in daily cuisines in SouthEast Asian countries since ages and popularly known by nomenclature like edamame (Japan), mao dou (China) and poot kong (Korea). For consumption, the pods of VSB are picked when they attain approximately 80 per cent maturity but not turned yellow, which corresponds to the R₆ stage of soybean plant development. Freshly harvested pods are boiled in water and directly popped into mouth or tender seeds shelled from boiled pods can be used in various food recipes similar to the chick pea and green pea. Traditional soy products of the South-East countries viz. soy milk, tofu, natto, miso processed from mature seeds, could not evoke much public response in other parts of world including India due to their off-flavour, time-consuming preparation and the exotic appeal. In such countries, VSB owing to its sweet taste, reduced off-flavour, easy cook- ability and more importantly, resemblance to other regular beans viz. chickpea, green pea and French bean offer an excellent alternative mode for harnessing health benefits of soybean. Efforts are underway to introduce the special vegetable-type genotypes from countries like Taiwan, China and India and popularize among masses.

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Vineet Kumar ¹, Anita Rani ¹, S. S. Vasuniya ¹, O. P. Joshi ¹

Affiliations
1 National Research Centre for Soybean (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), Khandwa Road, Indore, M.R, 452 017, IN

Abstract

Soybean has been endowed with epithet 'functional food of the century' as beyond traditional basic nutrition viz. high protein, PUFA rich oil, vitamins, minerals, it contains biological ingredients like isoflavones that prevent the risk of dreaded diseases like breast cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular ailments, kidney stones and help in beating the menopausal blues. Soybean has existed in India as a marginal food plant in some regions of Himalayas since ages but still it doesn’t appear as a common item in Indian cuisine. There are couple of constraints that hinder the promotion of soy- based foods. The prime deterrent among them is the off-flavour associated with various soy-based foods to which Indian populace is not accustomed to.

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Vineet Kumar ¹, Anita Rani ¹, S. Prakash Tiwari ¹

Affiliations
1 National Research Centre for Soybean, Khandwa Road, Indore, M.P., 452017, IN

Abstract

Soybean packed with the cheapest source of dietary protein (40%), offers a great potential in combating nutritional problems arising because of under and malnutrition in Indian population. Soybased diet is also becoming popular due to nutraceutical benefits that suit lactose intolerants, hypercholestrolics, diabetics, anemics lactating mothers and postmenopausal women. Lately, soy-based diet has been reported to prevent the risk of hazardous diseases like breast cancers, cardio-vascular diseases, osteoporosis, kidney and gallstone formation. However, soybean does suffer from shortfall of poorer protein digestibility. This is because of the presence of protease inhibitors primarily trypsin inhibitor. This biological component in soybean seed affects digestibility of proteins attributed to its antitryptic activity especially when soybean is consumed raw or used as flour without preblanching.

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