The soya plant

Soy has been eaten for thousands of years in Asia for it nutritional qualities and its high levels of high-quality vegetable protein.

The soy plant is a pulse (other plants in the same family include peas and beans) which produces a pod which usually contains three seeds or beans. These beans are soya beans. There are more than 100 different varieties, which can be distinguished by their size, colour, protein content and the consistency of their oil. The yellow-bean variety is the variety which is most used, as it contains an optimum combination of protein, fat and taste.

The origins of soy

The soy plant is native to Manchuria, and must not be confused with mungo beans which are mistakenly called "soybean sprouts" and are mainly eaten in salads.

The mungo bean has nothing to do with the beans which are used to produce products which contain soy. The two species are completely different.

The supreme eco-friendly plant, soy improves the soil, protects the groundwater table and forms nutrients in less than 100 days.

Soya beans are grown as a row crop, planted in May or June, and harvested with a grain combine in the fall. Soil on which soy has never been cultivated before, has to be grafted with the bacteria Rhizobium sp. in order to guarantee a successful crop. The pods are simultaneously ripe and can therefore be harvested in one time.

Soya has been grown in the West since the early 20th century. All over the United States, soy is now cultivated at a large scale. The European Union produces more than 600 000 tons of soy per year. Having been consumed in Asia for 4,000 years, and from the earliest age, soya found its way into the Western diet some decades ago.

La graine de soja

The soyabean consists of three major parts: the hull (seed coat with hilum i.e. the point of attachment to the pod), the cotyledons and the germ (hypocotyl). The two cotyledons of the soyabean are held together by the hull.

The approximate composition of the whole soyabean is as follows:

Whole seed: 100 %
Cotyledons: 90 %
Hull: 8 %
Hypocotyl axis: 2 %


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