Nutritional value, micronutrient and antioxidant capacity of some green leafy vegetables commonly used by southern coastal people of Bangladesh

• Published in: Heliyon 2019-11, Vol.5 (11), p.e02768-e02768, Article e02768
• Main Authors: Zihad, S.M. Neamul Kabir, Gupt, Yashu, Uddin, Shaikh J., Islam, Muhammad Torequl, Alam, Md. Rabiul, Aziz, Shahin, Hossain, Mahmood, Shilpi, Jamil A., Nahar, Lutfun, Sarker, Satyajit D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: antioxidant activity; ash content; Bangladesh; carbohydrates; Coastal vegetables; deforestation; Diplazium; flavonoids; Food analysis; Food chemistry; Food composition; food security; Free radical; Heliotropium indicum; Hibiscus sabdariffa; Hygrophila auriculata; lipid content; lipids; malnutrition; Micronutrient; Natural product chemistry; Nutrient availability; Nutrition; Nutritional and antioxidant potential; nutritive value; people; soil salinity; superoxide anion; Trianthema portulacastrum
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02768

Southern coastal people of Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition due to coastal flooding, deforestation and increased soil salinity. A number of green leafy vegetables are found in the southern coastal belt being traditionally eaten as daily basis by local people. But they are unaware of nutritional and medicinal use of these vegetables. To contribute to their wider utilization, five common vegetables namely Hibiscus sabdariffa, Trianthema portulacastrum, Diplazium esculentum, Heliotropium indicum L. and Hygrophila auriculata were selected for analysis of nutritional proximate, micronutrients and antioxidant potential. Nutritional properties were analyzed in terms of moisture, pH, protein, lipid, ash, fibre, minerals and carbohydrate. Total flavonoid, tannin and antioxidant capacity were evaluated using established protocols. The results demonstrated that collected plants are rich in carbohydrate, fibre, proteins, moisture and ash content but low in lipid content. The mineral elements were high with remarkable amount of Na (19.9–21.5 mg/gm), K (7.9–13.5 mg/gm) and P (1.0–1.8 mg/gm). All the samples were found to have considerable amount of flavonoid (90.6–144.5 mg QE/gm) and tannin content (26.8–57.2 mg GAE/gm). The IC50 value of DPPH and superoxide radical scavenging was the lowest for H. indicum (37.1 and 83.4 μg/ml, respectively) whereas T. portulacastrum possessed high reducing power (IC50 53.7 μg/ml). Among the five investigated species, T. portulacastrum and H. indicum were found to have good nutritional and antioxidant properties, thus can be promoted as a significant source of nutritional and antioxidant food supplements. Natural product chemistry; Food analysis; Food composition; Food chemistry; Nutrition; Nutrient availability; Coastal vegetables; Nutritional and antioxidant potential; Micronutrient; Free radical.