Abstract
Soybean is an important natural source of isoflavones, but their concentration is likely to be influenced by external factors, such as climatic conditions and soil tillage systems. However, there is minimal information about the effects of such external factors on the isoflavone concentration in soybeans grown in Europe. Therefore, in this study, field experiments were established in Romania to investigate the potential impacts of three different soil tillage systems—conventional, minimum tillage and no-tillage—on crop yields and the isoflavone concentration of soybeans for three experimental years, 2014–2016. Our experimental results indicated that the soil tillage systems had little impact on the soybean yields each year. However, the 2016 yield was found to be higher than the 2014 and 2015 yields under all three soil systems. For every experimental year, the higher yield was recorded by the conventional system, followed by the minimum tillage system and no-tillage system under first weed control (weed control two (wct2): S-metolaclor 960 g/L, imazamox 40 g/L and propaquizafop 100 g/L). Likewise, the soil tillage system did not have a significant influence on the total isoflavone concentrations. Nevertheless, we noticed some variations in the individual isoflavone concentration (daidzin, genistin, glycitin, daidzein, genistein) in each year. Altogether, the minimum tillage and no-tillage systems may be employed as a suitable soil tillage system in soybean farming without an impact on the total isoflavone.
Highlights
Soybean and soy products are consumed worldwide due to their high nutrient contents and bioactive components [1]
The soybeans harvested in 2014 showed significant differences in the concentration of individual isoflavone depending on soil tillage systems
Our results indicate that the three different soil tillage systems had no significant effect on the total concentration of isoflavone under the three different soil systems, the individual isoflavone concentration showed some variations under these soil systems (Figures A2–A6)
Summary
Soybean and soy products are consumed worldwide due to their high nutrient contents and bioactive components [1]. Soybean is an essential source of isoflavones [1,2]. Numerous studies suggest that the isoflavones in soybeans and soy products may have positive health effects, such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial, anti-arthritic, anti-obesity, Land 2020, 9, 386; doi:10.3390/land9100386 www.mdpi.com/journal/land. Land 2020, 9, 386 anti-hyperlipidemic, cardioprotective and anti-cancer effects [6,7,8,9]. Due to these purported effects, soybean products were widely marketed and sold as a health food product [1,10].
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