Abstract
The presence of protease inhibitors in soybean prohibits the utilisation of the raw beans for food and feed. However, little information is available about environmental influences and the effects of nitrogen and sulphur supply on the antinutritional constituents of soybean. As these factors may influence protease inhibitors, soybean genotypes segregated according to the presence or absence of the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor have been evaluated for trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) in field trials. TIA was affected significantly by environment (geographical location), fertilisation treatment and genotype. Environmental means of TIA were between 69.5 and 104.8 mg g^โ1^. Nitrogen application, which caused an increase in seed protein content, resulted in a reduction in TIA by about 15% as compared with the control. Remarkably, simultaneous application of nitrogen and sulphur in the form of ammonium sulphate had a similar reductive effect on TIA to that of nitrogen application alone, although soybean protease inhibitors are rich in sulphur amino acids. Significant genetic variation in TIA was found both within the genotype class with the Kunitz inhibitor present as well as within the class lacking this inhibitor. The results suggest that TIA of soybean may be modified considerably by genetic improvement and appropriate agronomic management. Copyright ยฉ 2003 Society of Chemical Industry