Evaluation of Vegetable-Type Soybean for Sucrose, Taste-Related Amino Acids, and Isoflavones Contents

Abstract

Vegetable soybean differs from the conventional soybean in its distinct taste. Genetic variability has been scarcely investigated in vegetable soybean for taste-related compounds viz. sucrose, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, and isoflavones. In the present study, analysis of green seeds of 12 vegetable-type genotypes, between reproductive stages of R6 and R7 (i.e., when the pods were completely filled but the seeds and pods shell not yet turned yellow), revealed ranges of 1.28–7.12, 0.37–1.51, 0.64–2.82, 0.17–0.72, 0.11–0.51 g/100 g for sucrose, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine content, respectively, while a range of 8.64–33.19 mg/100 g was observed for total isoflavones content. Genotypes with high levels of sucrose, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and alanine scored high for taste. Results did not indicate any significant relationship between isoflavones content and the taste score.