Soja. Glycine hispida, Soja hispida. Soy bean.
Soja. Glycine hispida Maxim. (Soja hispida Moench.) Soy Bean. Soja or Sahuca Bean. Miso. (Fam. Leguminosae.)—Soja is an important food plant and forage crop. It is an annual having hairy, trifoliate leaves, inconspicuous, violet-colored flowers, and forma broad legumes containing 2 to 5 seeds. The latter are compressed, spherical and vary from brownish-green to brownish-black. Meissel and Bocker (A. J. P., 1885, 108) give the composition of soja bean as follows: water, 10 per cent.; soluble casein, 30; albumen, 0.5; insoluble casein, 7; fat, 18; cholesterin, etc., 2; dextrin, 10; starch, 5; cellulose, 5; ash, 5; traces of sugar and an amido compound. Stingi and Morawski (Monatsschrift fur Chemie, April, 1886) have determined the presence in this bean of a ferment said to be one of the most powerful known in its action upon starch, two-thirds of which it converts into sugar and one-third into dextrin. Soja bean has been suggested as a diabetic food, but it contains upwards of 25 per cent. of carbohydrates.
