Genetic variability for traits related to cooking time in soybean

Abstract

Long cooking time for soybean seeds hinders their regular 'in natura' use as a rich source of protein. The objective of this research was to study the genetic variability of cooking time in soybean and its correlation with seed weight and imbibition percent. Pure food-type soybean lines were assessed having been cultivated in a greenhouse (experiment 1) and pure lines derived from crosses between grain type and food type soybean cultivars cropped in the field (experiment 2). In experiment 1, wide variability was detected in all the traits and the cooking time varied from 26 minutes to 170 minutes. In experiment 2 the range of cooking time was less (63 to 124 minutes). The most pronounced correlations were between imbibition percent and cooking time (-0.41*) for experiment 1 and between seed weight before and after imbibition with cooking time (0.42 and 0.41*) for experiment 2. The results showed substantial genetic variability in soybean cooking time. This can be used to obtain cultivars for human consumption with important decreases in cooking time.

Food type soybean cooking time: a review

“…The more frequently used methodology to measure the soybean cooking time is the modified Mattson machine (Mattson 1946), proposed by Jackson and Varriano-Marston (1981), used by Destro et al (2003) and Meneguce et al (2005), which is very cheap and simple. The technique consists in determining the cooking time by the percentage of grains cooked in the machine (50%).…”

“…The water bath was filled up with boiling water whenever necessary because of water loss through evaporation. The water temperature during the measurements remained around 98 o C (Destro et al 2003).…”

“…Besides this large production and the recognized nutritional and nutraceutical qualities, the in natura consumption of soybean is highly limited, mainly in Eastern countries which are main producers. This limitation is mainly due to lack of habit, undesirable taste and odor (beany flavor), after-cooking texture, and prolonged cooking time (Morais et al 2001, Destro et al 2003.…”

“…The unpleasant taste and smell have been assigned to lipoxygenase enzymes acting on the oxidation of lipids (Destro et al 2003). Soybean maceration and cooking are procedures that facilitate enzyme inactivation (Berra 1974).…”

“…Overcooking leads to a reduction in protein quality, and a prolonged immersion leads to an increase in solid lixiviates (Wang et al 1979, Walker andKochhar 1982). Destro et al (2003) demonstrated that there is substantial genetic variability in soybean cooking time which can be used for the development of cultivars for human consumption with significant cooking time reduction. There are few works published in the world on soybean cooking time.…”