Soybean Chemistry and Technology

THAT versatile oriental bean, the soybean, has been a long time coming into its own among Anglo-Saxons. For many years it has been a staple product in China and Manchuria where, according to travellers' tales, all sorts of uses were made of it. After the War of 1914–18 it came to Britain in quantity, the beans having their oil 'solvent extracted', and uses were sought for the cake both as animal feed and as a source of protein for humans. A serious check was given to its use when cattle were injured by it owing to the presence of a poisonous glycoside. The oil was not too well liked by the soap maker; it was not so 'soft', that is, unsaturated, as cotton seed oil, or hard enough to replace tallow, and the cost of hardening it by the catalytic process was not remunerative. Lastly, the growing of it was not understood either in Britain or in America. Soybean Chemistry and Technology Klare S. Markley Warren H. Goss. Pp. viii + 261. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Chemical Publishing Co., Inc.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1944.) 20s. net.