Jute leaves: A potential sources of lycopene

ABSTRACT

Jute (Corchorus sp.) leaves may contain lycopene, a strong antioxidant, but amounts in jute leaves are not known. The study was undertaken to estimate the lycopene content in fresh, processed, and preserved jute leaves of the cultivated jute species C. olitorius L. and C. capsularis L. The highest lycopene content was in 45-day-old fresh leaves which gradually decreased with increasing plant age. Among processing methods, leaves soaked in vinegar had the highest lycopene for C. olitorius but in C. capsularis the highest lycopene was in leaves boiled with water and salt for 15 min. All the processing methods led to increased availability of lycopene compared to fresh leaves. Preserved jute leaves retained lycopene following drying and preservation at −20°C. The highest lycopene was from cold dried preserved leaves at 4°C and then air dried leaves at 33–35°C; the lowest lycopene content was from leaves dried in an oven at 100°C. Lycopene content in leaves differed due to plant ages. Lycopene in 45-day-old plant jute leaves was more than doubled compared to fresh red tomatoes. Further evaluation is needed to determine if consumption and digestion affect the available lycopene content in jute leaves available to humans.

KEYWORDS:

• Corchorus capsularis
• Corchorus olitorius
• spectrophotometric

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Basic and Applied Research on Jute Project, Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, for the use of the spectrophotometer. We thank Md. Shahidul Islam, PhD, Principal Scientific Officer, Genetic Resources and Seed Division for critically reviewing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no specific outside funding for this work.