Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BHNRC) » Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center » Diet, Genomics and Immunology Laboratory » Research » Research Project #429701

Research Project: Investigation on Phytochemical and Macronutrient Properties of Soybeans Grown in Romania

Location: Diet, Genomics and Immunology Laboratory

Project Number: 8040-51530-058-001-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jan 1, 2016
End Date: Dec 3, 2020

Objective:
Soybeans are important agricultural legumes consumed worldwide. Soybeans are a good source of health-promoting phytochemicals, fat-soluble vitamins, oil and proteins. However, their amounts often vary considerably depending on genotype, environmental factors and growing conditions. Therefore, the objective of this work is to obtain the data by analyzing more than 20 samples of conventional soybean from Agricultural Research Station Turda, Romania and one sample from the Monsanto company (St. Louis, Missouri, USA), in order to understand how these variations affect the contents of macronutrients (e.g., proteins) and phytochemicals (e.g., isoflavones, vitamin E).

Approach:
Twenty different soybean varieties will be grown and harvested in Romania by the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine (UASVM), Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The harvested soybean sample will be provided to the USDA-ARS for nutrient/phyotchemical analysis. The USDA-ARS will examine macronutrient contents (e.g., proteins) as well as phytochemicals (e.g., isoflavones, vitamin E) of these samples with a commercial soybean from the Monsanto company (St. Louis, Missouri, USA). Protein content will be determined using BCA method and levels of soy isoflavones and vitamin E will be measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Additionally, metabolomic analysis will be performed using mass spectrometer for complementing nutrient/phyotchemical analysis. The outcomes of this study will provide the data to compare the contents of proteins, isoflavones, and vitamin E in the soybeans grown in Romania with those of a Monsanto soybean. If any significant difference exists, an animal experiment will be performed to determine potential health effects of Romanian samples using appropriate rodent models.