Names: Soja max; Soja hispida; Phaeolus max.
English: Soya bean.
Indonesian: Kacang kedelai.
Dutch: Soja boontjes.
Content: 18% fat; 43-49% protein; lecithin; phosphorus; sulphur; molybdenum.
Region: original east Asia, spread through cultivation.
Habitat: lowland thickets; subtropics, cultivation into tropics; averse wet climate, excessive heat, severe cold winters; sunny position, fertile, well-drained, slightly acid soil.
Content: 20% oil and 30 - 45% protein; antinutritional factors, trypsin inhibitors, haemagglutinins, goitrogens, antivitamins, saponins, phytates, heat destructive; heat-stable factors, oestrogens, flatulence factors, lysinoalanine; sprouting; fermentation for miso and tempeh; seed roasting can all render the seeds wholesome; unsaturated fatty acids, lecithin; sitosterol, starting material for stigmasterol.
Use: major staple foods with high quality protein; edible oil; traditional medicine; oil has many industrial uses; plant for green manure; beans, cooked for making soya milk, curds and cheese, flour, oil, protein, in soups, stews, various meat substitutes, flour, added to cereal flours, noodles, miso, tempeh; coffee substitute; seed for edible semi-drying oil, cooked as a dressing in salads, for manufacture of margarine and shortening; young leaves, raw or cooked.

BotanyErect, much-branched, annual herb; twining stems, climbing; 20 to 200 cm tall.
Root: deep taproot is branched; lateral, 2 metres long in the upper 20 cm of the soil.