Brazilian soybean Glycine max (L.) Merr. cultivars adapted to low latitude regions: seed composition and content of bioactive proteins

among the goals of the brazilian soybean improvement programmes, the breeding strategies for cultivars adapted to low latitudes have been included to extend crop areas and to increase production. seeds of nine brazilian soybean cultivars adapted to low latitudes were investigated regarding to their composition, and amino acid and antinutritional/toxic protein contents. protein (394.5 ± 13.1 to 445.3 ± 8.0 g kg-1 dry matter) and oil (200.6 ± 1.2 to 232.3 ± 4.7 g kg-1 dry matter) contents showed low correlation to each other (r = -0.06). the total carbohydrate (141.7 ± 6.1 to 211.1 ± 15.0 g kg-1 dry matter) and ash contents (48.2 ± 4.2 to 52.2 ± 0.5 g kg-1 dry matter) were similar to data available for other soybean cultivars. all soybean cultivars presented low levels of tryptophan and sulphur amino acids. the lectin (1,152 to 147,456 hu kg-1 flour), trypsin inhibitor (34.45 ± 2.28 to 77.62 ± 2.63 g trypsin inhibited kg-1 flour), toxin (6,210 ± 134 to 34,650 ± 110 ld50 kg-1 flour) and urease (0.74 ± 0.02 to 1.22 ± 0.10 g kg1 flour) presented variations in their contents amongst the cultivars. compared to other soybean cultivars, urease was higher, the acute toxicity lower and the lectin and trypsin inhibitor contents similar to data available. in general, soybean cultivars showed similar biochemical composition to those developed in different geographic regions. the relevance of these findings to the agronomic features and to choice of soybean cultivars to be used as food or feed is discussed.