Soybean

The soybean, also called soy, is a legume native to East Asia whose seeds are a major global source of protein and oil, and the basis of foods including tofu, soy sauce, miso, tempeh and natto. Archaeobotanical evidence points to the Yellow River basin of northern China as the leading candidate for where the wild soybean was first domesticated, though the dating has shifted substantially as evidence has accumulated: early estimates based on small-seeded specimens suggested domestication as much as nine thousand years ago, while a large comparative study of charred soybean remains across dozens of sites in China, Japan and Korea concluded that clearly domesticated, larger-seeded soybeans appear closer to fifty five hundred years ago, alongside the spread of early farming villages in the region.