Effect of Packaging Materials and Storage Periods on the Protein Content of Three Soybean Varieties from Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

Soybeans are the leguminous vegetable of the pea family that grows in a tropical, subtropical and temperate climate. Protein and oil are soybeans seed components of great economic value. This work was carried out at the Seed Science Laboratory in the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria. It was aimed at assessing the protein content of soybeans stored under ambient condition. The experimental design was factorial in 3x5x6x factorial completely randomized design (CRD) comprising 3 varieties, 5 storage periods and 5 packaging materials by 3 replicates. The varieties investigated were TGx 932- 3F, TGx1904- 6F and TGx1448- 2E stored in cloth, glass bottle, plastic container, low-density polyethene and laminate paper. The storage periods were 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8months Least significant (LSD) at 5% was used to compare the treatment means. The seeds in storage were sampled periodically (2, 4, 6 and 8 months) to determine the protein content. The protein content of the samples was determined according to the standard method. TGx 1448- 2E (V3) had the highest protein content while TGx 1904- 6F (V2) had the least. The highest protein content was recorded in soybeans packaged in a plastic container (43.55) while the least was recorded in soybeans that were not packaged in anything (control). The investigation showed that soybeans stored for 8 months had the highest protein content of 44.01 and the lowest was in 0 months (36.47). It was observed that the protein content increased with increase in storage period. Significant differences ((P<0.05) were observed in all the main effects. The result of the interaction between variety and storage period showed V3 (TGX-1448-2E) had the highest protein content when stored for 8 months and the lowest was V2 (TGX-1904-6F) at 0month (30.8) and the next lowest one was V2 at 2months (36.79). The interaction effect of storage period and packaging material on protein showed that the highest protein content was recorded at 8month and the lowest was recorded at the 0 months (36.467). The interaction effect of variety and packaging material on protein content showed variation. The highest protein content recorded was in V3 (44.795) while the lowest was for V2 (39.847). The highest interaction was between V3 x LDPE (44.795) and the lowest was V2 X laminate paper. However, there were significant differences (P<0.05) in all the interaction effects. The present study revealed that the protein content of stored soybeans varied with storage period, packaging material and variety.