Composition
See also: trans fatPer 100g, soybean oil has 16g of saturated fat, 23g of mono-unsaturated fat, and 58g of poly-unsaturated fat. The major unsaturated fatty acids in soybean oil triglycerides are the poly-unsaturates, alpha-linolenic acid (C-18:3), 7-10%, and linoleic acid (C-18:2), 51%; and the mono-unsaturate, oleic acid (C-18:1), 23%. It also contains the saturated fatty acids, stearic acid, (C-18:0), 4%, and palmitic acid, (c-16:0), 10%.
The high-proportion of oxidation-prone linolenic acid is undesirable for some uses, such as cooking oils. Three companies, Monsanto Company, DuPont/Bunge, and Asoyia in 2004 introduced low linolenic Roundup Ready soybeans. In the past, hydrogenation was used to reduce the unsaturation in linolenic acid, but this produced the unnatural trans-fatty acid configuration, whereas in nature the configuration is cis.
Read more about this topic: Soybean Oil
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“It is my PRIDE, my damn’d, native, unconquerable Pride, that plunges me into Distraction. You must know that 19-20th of my Composition is Pride. I must either live a Slave, a Servant; to have no Will of my own, no Sentiments of my own which I may freely declare as such;Mor DIE—perplexing alternative!”
—Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770)
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)