History of SoybeanThe name soya has its origin in the Chinese word shu and sou. The Aryan of central Asia considered soybean along with honey as scared food to be offered to the departed.
The ancient yogis of the Indus Valley Civilization supplemented their meatless diet with this bean to ward off deficiency of good quality protein.
The first written record of the soybean appeared in “Materia Medica,” written by Emperor Shennung in 2838 BC, where it was described along with many other plants of China.
Since the pre-historical times, China has been producing soybean and there was story that during the early dynasty Han, the method of preparation for soybean curd was invented by the King Liu An of Huainan kingdom.
With the beginning of mutual trade soybean is supposed to be introduced to India sometime after the beginning of the Christian era.
As firmly as the history of the development of man in the western world is related to “bread and meat (animal protein)” the history in the eastern world is linked with millet, rice and soybeans (vegetable protein).
It is known that, though legend, that the soybean has supplied, in the form of soya milk, soya-cheese “tofu” and baked foods, the substantial part of the protein in the diet of the Chinese for at least 4000 years.
The soybean was introduced into Europe in 1712 by Kaempfer and into the United States in 1804.
In United States for several decades it was regarded more as a botanical curiosity than as a plant of economic importance.
Since 1890 nearly all of the State Agricultural Experiments have experimented with soybeans and many bulletins have been published dealing wholly or partly with the crop.
Additional varieties of soybeans were brought into the United States in 1854, 1900 and 1905, but it was not until 1915 that they were grown in quantities sufficient for commercial utilization.
In 1916, 30,000 bushels were processed for oil. The general shortage of fats and oils during the first world war gave a temporary, but rather short lived, stimulus to the production of soybeans for extraction purposes.
In 1922, however, about 27,000 bushels of soybeans were crushed for oil and the increasing demands for soybean oil have since that time given rise to the phenomenal growth of the domestic soybean industry.
History of Soybean
