NUTRITIONAL PROFILE OF SELECTED LEAFY VEGETABLES

Leaf vegetables are also called leafy greens, vegetable green or simply greens are plant leaves eaten as vegetables, although they come from a very wide variety of plants. Leaf vegetables contain many typical plant nutrients, low in calories and fat, and high in protein dietary fiber, vitamin c and vitamin k. In this study, an attempt was made to estimate nutritional factors in selected leafy vegetables- Allium chinense, Amaranthuscruentus, Amaranthusviridis, Apiumgraveolens, Brassica oleracea, Colocasiaesculenta, Coriandrumsativum, Lactuca sativa, Moringaoleifera and Murrayakoenigii. Among the ten selected leafy vegetables, the highest amount of carbohydrate was found in Brassica oleracea(2.97mg/g) and lowest amount of carbohydrate was found in Allium chinense(2.54mg/g). Among the selected leafy vegetables, the highest amount of protein was found in Moringaoleifera(38.93mg/g) and lowest amount of protein was found in Lactuca sativa (38.93 mg/g).It was determined that among the selected leafy vegetables Amaranthuscruentus showed the highest value (0.063mg/g) for ascorbic acid and Colocasiaesculenta(0.012 mg/g) showed the least value. It was found that Brassica oleraceahad the highest amount of amino acid content (0.74mg/g) and Lactuca sativa had the least amount of amino acid (0.12 mg/g). It was determined that the highest amount of fat was found in Colocasiaesculenta(0.070mg/g) andthe least in Brassica oleracea(0.023mg/g). From this preliminary study, it was clear that leafy vegetables are rich sources of many nutrients and form a major category of vegetable groups that have been designated as ?nature?s anti-aging wonders?.