Abstract
Investigations have been carried out to determine the effect of size of seed, variety and crop year on the oil content and fatty acid composition of soybean seeds of 13 varieties grown at the same location in the 2 crop years. The variety, as compared with the size of seed, was more influential on the oil content and the fatty acid composition. When the size of seed decreased, however, the oil and oleic acid contents decreased and the linolenic acid content increased. This finding was more conspicuous in indeterminate type varieties than in determinate type varieties. When comparing the crop year and the variety, the oil content and oleic and linolenic acid contents were influenced by the crop year, and linoleic acid content by the variety. On the correlation between the oil and fatty acid contents, the oil content was positively correlated with the palmitic and oleic acid contents, and negatively with the linolenic acid content. On the correlation between the fatty acid pairs, the negative correlations were shown between the linoleic acid content and the palmitic, oleic or linolenic acid content, and the linolenic and olec acid contents, and the positive correlations were shown between the stealic acid content and the palmitic or linolenic acid content.
