Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Different Soybean Cultivars from Mekong River Delta - Vietnam

Abstract

In recent years, the studying of nutrition component and antioxidant charateristics from natural food sources has become more necessary and popular. In the present work, seeds of 7 cultivars from Mekong River Delta, Vietnam (MTĐ 760, MTĐ 176, MTĐ 878.2, MTĐ 517.8, Cao San, Japanese cultivar 17A and Nam Vang) of soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) were investigated for proximate composition and antioxidant potential. Soybean seeds were found to be a rich source of protein (37.56 – 40.32%, db), the lipid contents were found to be 18.16 – 20.93% db, carbohydrate were from 30.06 to 33.19% db, its reducing sugar seizes from 2.47 – 3.42%, db. Beside, the variation of fiber and ash were in range of 4.10 – 5.20% and 4.73 – 5.35% db, respectively. Acetone extracts of the soybean seeds cultivars exhibited a good antioxidant activity as determined in terms of total phenolic contents – TPC (2.49 ± 0.04 – 3.10 ± 0.03 mg GAE/g), total flavonoid content – TFC (1.58 ± 0.05 – 2.38 ± 0.05 mg QE/g), Vitamin C (6.24 ± 0.12 – 7.12 ± 0.12 mg/g) and IC50 values (9.14 ± 0.04 - 10.65 ± 0.06 mg/ml). The MTĐ 760 cultivar was accessed as the best raw material for functional and high protein soy food processing such as soymilk and tofu due to the highest levels of protein, TPC as well as antioxidant capacity.