The reactive multihydroxy soybean oil (MHSBO) was synthesized from epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO). The ESBO was reacted with ethylene glycol to obtain MHSBO having high functionality. This study investigated a feasibility to prepare wood adhesive through the reaction of polymeric methylene-diphenyl-4,4'-diisocyanate (pMDI) with MHSBO. Different polyurethane adhesives were prepared with a variety of equivalent mole ratios (eq. mole ratios) of MHSBO to pMDI. The chemical reactions of adhesives were analyzed using (1)H NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and their thermal studies were investigated by DSC and TGA. The MHSBO/pMDI resins (3 : 1 and 2 : 1 eq. mole ratios) showed endothermic peaks, whereas the MHSBO/pMDI resins (1 : 2 and 1 : 3 eq. mole ratios) showed exothermic peaks. The best adhesion strength was found when plywood was bonded with the adhesive of a eq. mole ratio of 2 : 1 (MHSBO : pMDI). These results indicated that the bond strength was not related to the reactivity obtained from the FTIR spectra. But it was explained that the adhesion strength increased as the residual -NCO groups in the adhesive reacted with the hydroxy groups of wood during the manufacturing of plywood. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121: 764-769, 2011