Analysis and Comparison of Seed Protein, Oil, and Sugars in Edamame dried using Two Oven-Drying Methods and Mature Soybeans.

Edamame, a vegetable soybean (Glycine max) grown mainly in Asia, has high nutritional and market value and is a relatively new crop to North America. By two years of field trials, we evaluated the seed composition traits in 54 genotypes to analyze the differences and relationship between edamame seeds dried by two oven drying methods and mature soybeans.

The genotypic differences were significant for all the traits investigated. Significant differences also existed between the two sets of dried edamame and mature seed. Protein content in mature soybean averaged 426.8 g kg^-1 , and 432.8 and 405.6 g kg^-1 for shelled-dried and unshelled-dried edamame. Oil content in shelled-dried and unshelled-dried edamame averaged 206.3 and 212.6 g kg^-1 respectively, while 195.8 g kg^-1 for mature soybean. Sucrose content in mature soybean (60.2 g kg^-1 ) was approximately 1.5 and 3 times of unshelled-dried and shelled-dried edamame. Mature soybean also exhibited the highest concentrations of stachyose and total sugars, followed by unshelled-dried and shelled-dried edamame. The broad-sense heritability estimates of traits in mature soybean (49.41-89.16%) were higher than those of edamame (10.26-78.96%). Higher broad-sense heritability was uncovered for protein and oil, but lower estimates for sugars, fiber, and ash. Positive correlations were detected between the two sets of edamame seeds and mature soybean for protein and oil (r = 0.63-0.88).

The result suggests that indirect selection through mature seeds is helpful for the improvement of protein and oil in edamame, while the improvement of seed sugars in edamame is more challenging. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.