Soybean:A New Generation Bean

Soybean and its food products have been extensively used as dietary items throughout the world. Soybean is well known for its nutritional value because of its high protein profile. The nutritional benefits of soybean are mainly due to the presence of essential amino acids, fibers, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, isoflavone content and minerals. In addition to nutritional benefits, soybean supplementation also reduces the risk of developing various disorders such as cancer (including breast, prostate, endometrial and colon cancers), cardiovascular diseases (including hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis), osteoporosis, cognitive dysfunction (including dementia and Alzheimer's disease) and diabetes mellitus. Moreover, soybean plays an important role in reducing renal disease, viral infections and also acts as an immuno-modulator. Several mechanisms have been proposed for these beneficial effects such as modulation of estrogen receptors, lowering of cholesterol, antioxidant activity, protein tyrosine kinase inhibition and prevention of proliferation of cells. This review article mainly covers the nutritional and pharmacological profile of soybean.