science

Soybean oil

Soybean oil is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Soybean oil rather than just read about it. In short: Soybean oil (British English: soyabean oil) is a vegetable oil extracted from soybean (Glycine max) legumes. It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils and the second most consumed vegetable oil.

Key takeaways

Soybean oil belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soybean oil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soybean oil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Soybean oil (British English: soyabean oil) is a vegetable oil extracted from soybean (Glycine max) legumes. It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils and the second most consumed vegetable oil. As a drying oil, processed soybean oil is also used as a base for printing inks (soy ink) and oil paints.

Composition Soybean oil contains only trace amounts of fatty carboxylic acids (about 0.3% by mass in the crude oil, and 0.03% in the refined oil). Instead it contains esters. In the following content, the expressions "fatty acids" and "acid" below refer to esters rather than carboxylic acids. Per 100 g, soybean oil has 16 g of saturated fat, 23 g of monounsaturated fat, and 58 g of polyunsaturated fat. The major unsaturated fatty acids in soybean oil triglycerides are the polyunsaturates alpha-linolenic acid (C-18:3), 7-10%, and linoleic acid (C-18:2), 51%; and the monounsaturate 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 polyunsaturated fatty 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. Hydrogenation may be used to reduce the unsaturation in linolenic acid. The resulting oil is called hydrogenated soybean oil. If the hydrogenation is only partially complete, the oil may contain small amounts of trans fat. Trans-fat is also commonly introduced during conventional oil deodorization, with a 2005 review detecting 0.4 to 2.1% trans content in deodorized oil.

Production In 2022 China was the main producer of soybean oil, with a share of 29%, and the United States of America in second with a share of 21%.

Manufacturing To produce soybean oil, the soybeans are cracked, adjusted for moisture content, heated to between 60 and 88 °C (140 and 190 °F), rolled into flakes, and solvent-extracted with hexanes. The oil is then refined, blended for different applications, and sometimes hydrogenated. Soybean oils, both liquid and partially hydrogenated are sold as "vegetable oil", or are ingredients in a wide variety of processed foods. Most of the remaining residue (soybean meal) is used as animal feed.

Applications

Food Soybean oil is mostly used for frying, cooking, and baking. It is also used as a condiment for salads.

Drying oils Soybean oil is one of many drying oils, which means that it will slowly harden (due to free-radical-based polymerization) upon exposure to air, forming a flexible, transparent, and waterproof solid. Because of this property, it is used in some printing ink and oil paint formulations. However, other oils (such as linseed oil) may be superior for some drying oil applications.

Medical uses

Soybean oil is indicated for parenteral nutrition as a source of calories and essential fatty acids.

Fixative for insect repellents While soybean oil has no direct insect repellent activity, it is used as a fixative to extend the short duration of action of essential oils such as geranium oil in several commercial products.

Trading

Soybean oil is traded at the Chicago Board of Trade in contracts of 60,000 pounds (27,000 kilograms) at a time. Prices are listed in cents and thousandths of a cent per pound, with a minimum fluctuation of 5/1000 cents. It has been traded there since 1951. Soybean oil was the central commodity involved in the Salad oil scandal, resulting in total losses of $180 million. Below are the CQG contract specifications for Bean Oil:

Sources This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2025, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

References

External links "Soybean oil". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Archived from the original on July 16, 2020.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soybean oil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soybean oil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Soybean oil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Soybean oil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Soybean oil

In research: Soybean oil appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Soybean oil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Soybean oil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Drugs not assigned an ATC code, Soy-based foods, Soy products, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soybean oil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Soybean oil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soybean oil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Soybean oil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soybean oil in simple terms?

Why does Soybean oil matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Soybean oil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Soybean oil.