Abstract—Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) is a crop of world economic importance. Conventional soybean cultivars, in general are for the oil extraction industries and its subproduct for animal feeding. However, there are some cultivars genetically modified, that present characteristics adapted for different utilizations, including human food. The objective of this work was to evaluate, three soybean cultivars, Vmax (conventional), and BR 257 and 267 (human food uses). Chemical composition was evaluated in grains with tegument (WT) and without tegument (WIT) heat treated (HT) and non-heat treated (NHT). For characterization, it was observed: humidity, proteins, lipids, minerals, nitrogen solubility index (NSI), protein dispersability index (PDI), isoflavones, Kunitz trypsin inhibitor and lipoxygenases. The heat treatment promoted reduction of the protein solubility, reduction of glucosidic and malonyl isoflavones, and of Kunitz trypsin inhibitor, in grains WIT. Lipoxygenases were also inactivated in BRS 267 and Vmax cultivars. Potassium was the mineral present in higher amount in all cultivars. BRS 267 cultivar showed the highest content of protein, but the lowest content of isoflavones. Vmax cultivar showed the highest content of lipids and isoflavones. Heat treatments, although decreasing protein solubility, are necessary for conventional soybeans to improve flavor and to reduce anti nutritional factors. Depending on the objective of soybean utilization, different cultivars and treatments should be applied. Genetic breeding to obtain soybean cultivars with special characters is important to process high quality soybean products. 
 

Index Terms—soybean grains, isoflavones, Kunitz trypsin inhibitor, protein solubility, lipoxygenases, heat treatment

Cite: Aline Andressa Rigo, Alice Maria Dahmer, Clarice Steffens, Juliana Steffens, and Mercedes Concórdia Carrão-Panizzi, "Characterization of Soybean Cultivars Genetically Improved for Human Consumption," International Journal of Food Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-7, June 2015. doi: 10.18178/ijfe.1.1.1-7