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In Poland, the mountainous and hilly regions until recently were territories with unbalanced and poor diet quality, especially in early spring. Wild edible plants were or remain influential in supplementing a human diet. One of the earliest wild edible plants to appear in the growing season, characteristic of a broad swath of Europe from Ukraine to Germany, remains wild (ramsons) garlic (Allium ursinum L.). This paper assesses the impact of the vegetation site and preservation methods on the content of chlorophylls, β-carotene, vitamin C, total polyphenols, and antioxidant activity (ABTS, DPPH, and FRAP) of wild garlic leaves. In addition, the connection between its genome pattern and chemical composition was assessed. The plants were collected in three locations in the Carpathian foothills, and the reference sample was plants collected in the lowlands. The site from which the raw material was harvested has a statistically significant effect on the chemical composition of the preserved leaves of wild garlic. The profiles of the analysed components differed in the material from a different site. Wild garlic leaves from mountainous areas (400–600 m above sea level) were characterized by a higher content of the analysed ingredients than leaves obtained from lowland sites (200 m above sea level). Moreover, the material from the lowlands had a different genetic pattern from the leaves from the mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we tested the hypothesis that a product subjected to a single treatment in water (modified technology - a convenience food) will contain more magnesium than the one subjected to a twofold treatment (traditional technology). Moreover, with higher magnesium retention, the nutrient density (ND) of the product will also be higher, as will be the intake of magnesium in a portion of vegetables expressed as a percentage of recommended dietary allowance (RDA). In fresh vegetables, the highest magnesium content was found in spinach and the lowest in white cauliflower. In vegetables prepared for consumption, magnesium retention was highest in frozen products obtained using the modified technology, followed by cooked fresh vegetables, with the lowest retention in product obtained using the traditional technology. The above sequence of magnesium content also applied to ND and RDA values, the ND values easily exceeding 100% for all the samples examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green pea is regarded as an important constituent of a human diet, especially for vegetarians. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the amino acids content in green pea and the quality of pea protein. The study covered raw seeds; fresh seeds cooked to consumption consistency; and two kinds of frozen products prepared for consumption: frozen seeds obtained using the traditional method and frozen seeds of the ready-to-eat type. Compared with the raw material, cooked fresh pea contained more isoleucine (15%), valine (14%) and arginine (24%) but less tyrosine (17%); cooked pea from the traditional frozen product contained less sulphur-containing amino acids (12%) and alanine (13%); while pea from the frozen product of the ready-to-eat type contained a similar or higher amount (from 12% to 38%) of amino acids, except for sulphur-containing amino acids (less 12%). The protein of green pea was of very good quality, both in raw seeds and in those prepared for consumption. In comparison with the FAO/WHO/1991 standard, the CS indexes exceeded 100. It was only for sulphuric amino acids that the CS for the ready0to-eat product was 98. The methods of culinary and technological processing applied affected the quality of protein in green pea seeds to a negligible degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]