Physical characteristics and nutritional composition of some new soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) genotypes

Soybean is a major source of high quality protein and oil and soybean seed quality is often determined by seed nutritional and antinutritional parameters. The objective of this study was to investigate the physical characteristics and nutritional composition of some new soybean genotypes. Hundred seed weight and volume of soybean genotypes ranged from 8.7 to 11.1 g and 8.1 to 12.0 ml respectively, whereas, percent water absorption and percent volume expansion values ranged from 94.3 to 119.5% and 70.8 to 159.5% respectively. The genotypes contained % crude protein (39.4-44.4), oil (14.0-18.7), starch (4.3-6.7), total soluble sugars (5.6-7.9), reducing sugars (0.21-0.33) and sucrose (5.6-11.8). The free fatty acid and triglyceride content ranged from 31-71 mg 100 g(-1) oil and 90.1-93.9 g 100 g(-1) oil respectively. The antinutritional components determined include: mg g(-1) TIA (41.5-85.0), phytate (2.3-5.6), total phenols (1.0-1.5), flavonols (0.20-0.34) and ortho-dihydroxy phenols (0.10-0.21). A significant variation for the 11S/7S ratio was observed among the 8 soybean genotypes and the values ranged from 0.70 ('SL 768' and 'SL 869') to 2.4 ('SL 794').