New Soybean Good for the Heart

March 29, 2000

USDA has just released a non-transgenically modified soybean called Soyola that yields oil that doesn't need to be hydrogenated to improve its usefulness for cooking. Hydrogenation produces most of the dietary trans fats now recognized as unhealthy for the heart.

Soyola is the first non-genetically modified soybean for the southern United States with reduced linolenic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid that degrades easily and causes "off" or rancid flavors in soybean oil, especially after extended heating. So most soybean oil now is hydrogenated to stabilize it for cooking and extend its usefulness as well as to harden it for baking and margarine.

Its oil has half the linolenic acid found in commercial varieties, according to developer Joseph W. Burton at the Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research Unit in Raleigh, NC. The unit is part of USDA's Agricultural Research Service.