Soybean is a small genus of twining and sub—erect harbs,
distributed throughout the tropics of Asia, Africa and Australia.
Soybean, also called Chinese bean, is considered one of the most
important cultivated legume and is one of the five sacred grains,
rice, soybean, barley, wheat and millet, essential to the existence
of Chinese civilization. It is learnt from the ’Meteria
Medica’ written about A.D. 450 that soybean was not paisonous but
regarded as a specific remedy for proper functioning of heart,
liver, kidney, stomach and bowels. It was also used as a stimulant
for lungs, for eradication of poisons from the system,
improvement of complexion and stimulant for growth of hair. It
is also called poor man’s meant due to its high protein content (2).

The production of soybean which for many centrries was
confined to the countries of Asia, spread rapidly to the rest
of the world and in recent years, it has attained great importance
in the U.S.A, as a raw material for industry. Cultivation of
soybean has gained momentum in all the American countries and in
the U.S.S.R., Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslovia, etc. However, attempts
to popularise soybean in India as pulse was not met with success
due to the presence of other widely used pulses.

In recent years, we have become used to soybean oil which
is comparatively cheaper. Now, if cultivation of soybean is
introduced in our country, we can meet our demand of edible oil,
which has become a scarce material. Once it is grown abundantly,
it will then surely find other uses as raw meterials of industries.