A simple lab-scale extraction of soybean hull peroxidase shows wide variation among cultivars

•Developed a method for quantifying soybean peroxidase with the use of 4–5 hulls.•Compared 65 varieties of soybean seed coat peroxidase.•Implicated why some varieties could have much higher end-value.

Commercial production of soybean hull peroxidase is of interest because it is a renewable biocatalyst with many potential applications, it would not compete with animal feed, land or other agricultural resources and it could be easily incorporated with crushing operations, adding value to one of the fastest growing crops in the world. Further characterization of seed coat traits in combination with desirable seed characteristics will aid growers to select cultivars with higher potential end value. Therefore, we developed a lab-scale method in order to assess the soybean hull peroxidase levels in 65 different cultivars from four different seed suppliers, using 4–5 hulls from each. The simplicity of the method mimics a unit operation which could also be incorporated into a crushing plant. Herein we show that only 31 of the 65 samples would be classified as high activity hulls (the other 34 having little to no activity). Clearly, some varieties would have higher economic potential than others for the production of soybean hull peroxidase.