Temporospatial Characterization of Nutritional and Bioactive Components of Soybean Cultivars in China

Nutritional and bioactive constituents, apart from protein and oil, have many beneficial functions and are of great importance in determining the quality and nutritional value of soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. However, the temporospatial trends in soybean constituents have not been determined. The objective of this study was thus to identify the temporospatial trends in seed constituents among 89 widely grown soybean cultivars over a period of nine decades (1923–2007) in four soybean-producing regions of China. A combination of analytical techniques was used to quantify eight categories of 35 seed constituents. The results include the following: (1) The temporal pattern (the genetic change) after nine decades of breeding was characterized by significantly increasing trends in the concentration of isoflavones, tocopherol, starch, sucrose, Ca, Mn, phospholipids and lectin, and decreasing trends in Zn, Cu and lutein concentrations. (2) The spatial distribution showed higher stachyose, Zn, isoflavone, saponin and lectin content in the cultivars from lower latitudes versus higher latitudes, and the content of tocopherol, carotenoid, oligosaccharides and phospholipids exhibited the reverse pattern. (3) According to principal component analysis, carotenoid, Fe and Mn, saponin components and glycitin were the most important contributors to the total variation across the 89 cultivars. These results provide us with a comprehensive profile for manipulating chemical constituents and improving various functional ingredients through breeding.