Soybean Plant

Soybeans are annual crops and belong to the family of legumes. The plant comes from China and requires warm and humid climates with temperatures between 24 and 34 °C. Further, soybean plants can only flower properly if the day length (i.e. light exposure) is below 14 hours, which makes the cultivation in northern latitudes difficult. Soybeans are foremost cultivated as an oil crop, but they also have high protein contents, which also makes them an important protein plant. In Asia, soybeans play a major role as a food crop. Since the 1950s, the plant was spread in North- and South America. Nowadays over 80% of the total soybean production comes from the US, Brazil and Argentina. The soybean plant reaches a hight up to 80 cm with 3-5 cm long pods containing 2–3 beans. The oil contend of the beans varies between 15-21%. Soy oil consists mostly of unsaturated fatty acids (especially oleic acid and linoleic acid).