Promising Soya Bean Lecithin Market
                           Zhong Zeyang
There are more gthan 10 soya  bean  lecithin  producers  in
China  including  Beijing  Nanyuan  Vegetable  Oil  Plant,
Shanghai No. 1 Oil & Fat Plant, Heilongjiang  Anda  Oil  &
Fat Plant, Nanjing Food Additive Plant and Qiqihar Xinghua
  Soya  Bean  Lecithin  Economic  &  Technical  Development
Corporation. The commercial production scale has  not  yet
been formed,   and  the  technical  level  is  behind  the
advanced level in the world.   The  extraction  technology
used in most producers is still the intermittent  process,
and only a few producers can produce high purity and  high
quality soya  bean  lecithin.   Major  breakthroughs  have
recently been achieved in research and production of  soya
bean  lecithin.   According  to  the  tests  conducted  by
domestic and foreign authoritative departments, soya  bean
active lecithin developed by East China Research Institute
of Active Lecithin Application Technology has  reached  an
absorption rate of  80%  in  human  bodies,   holding  the
leading position in the world.
Achievements  have  also  been  made  in  the   application
development of soya bean lecithin in the recent years. The
  product  can   replace   egg   yoke   lecithin   in   the
pharmaceutical industry to cut down  the  production  cost
and reduce the import amount. The development of soya bean
lecithin used in intravenous injection is the focus of the
pharmaceutical development program. The  139  anti- cancer
injections prepared by high purity medical-grade soya bean
lecithin are in short supply in the domestic market.   The
  project  of  "developing  medical  and  injection-  grade
lecithin" undertaken by Anshan Dongfang Biological  Health
Protection Products  Co. ,   Ltd.   has  developed  a  new
production process. Medical and injection- grade  lecithin
is extracted from soya bean powder lecithin,  filling  the
gap  in  China.   A  large  medical  and  injection- grade
production line has been constructed.
Soya bean lecithin has become a health protection food with
a ready market in China. Shanghai No. 1 Oil &  Fat  Plant,
the earliest producer of soya beam lecithin, has used soya
bean lecithin in the development of health protection food
and produced transparent lecithin capsules  with  no  slow
osmosis. The product is low-priced and convenient to carry
. It has  now  started  batch  production  and  is  already
available in market.
The output of soya bean is 16.4 million tons and the output
of soya bean oil is 1.15 million tons in China. There  are
therefore abundant raw material resources to develop  soya
bean lecithin. The development of technologies  for  deep-
processing and transformation of agricultural products  is
also one of the priorities supported by  the  state.   The
massive development of soya bean  lecithin  and  its  deep
-processed products can not only increase the  added  value
and technical content of soya bean, the product market has
a bright prospect as well.