Oil content and fatty acid composition of soybean (Glysine max L.) genotypes evaluated under rainfed conditions of Kashmir Himalayas in India

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max), a multipurpose crop with much appreciated nutritional and functional properties, has generated a lot of interest during last few decades for improving its cultivation and characteristics. Besides having a great potential of energy-protein malnutrition eradication, it can contribute greatly to edible oil pool in the region. This study investigates some agro-morphological characters, besides seed oil content and fatty acid composition of two local soybean genotypes labeled as S/D-18 and S/D-22 grown under rainfed conditions of Kashmir Himalayas in India. The genotype S/D-22 matured earlier than that of S/D-18. Seed yield/plant of 18.5 g (S/D-18) and 20.1g (S/D-22) was recorded in these genotypes with 100-seed weight of 14.3 g and 14.7 g respectively. Seeds of genotype S/D-18 yielded an oil content of 19.54% while in genotype S/D-22 oil content of 19.74% was recorded. Fatty acids of myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and linoleinic were detected and quantified in the oil extracted from the seeds of these genotypes. Saturated fatty acids constituted 11.88%(S/D-18) and 11.42%(S/D-22) while unsaturated fatty acids constituted 88.12% (S/D-18) and 88.58% (S/D-22) of the oil. The study has thus, revealed that under dry land conditions, although soybean seed yield/plant is lesser, percentage oil content and fatty acid composition essentially remained unaltered and that significant differences can occur in individual fatty acid contents between genotypes.