Maintaining overall quality of fresh traditional leafy vegetables of Southern Africa during the postharvest chain

ABSTRACT

Traditional leafy vegetables are rich in bioactive macronutrients and micronutrients, including antioxidants. The increased consumption of traditional vegetables has been proposed as part of the solution to micronutrient malnutrition among the rural populations. Traditional vegetables are not grown commercially on a large scale or sold widely but are cultivated, traded, and consumed locally. These vegetables are easy to cultivate with minimal management and grow quickly under adverse soil and weather conditions. Their availability throughout the year and their affordability can also contribute to health and nutritional security rather than costly off-seasonal vegetables. After harvest, the leafy vegetables are prone to severe moisture loss due to their high surface-area-to-volume ratio. This results in a series of physical and biochemical changes that cause loss of weight, nutritional value, and texture, with the loss of overall quality eventually making the vegetable unattractive and unsalable. Reducing these losses during harvest and postharvest chain is an important part of sustainable agricultural development efforts to increase food availability. The review summarizes the research findings on nutritional quality, influence of preharvest factors on growth, challenges encountered during marketing, postharvest quality changes and novel methods to reduce postharvest quality losses, and bioactive compounds of selected traditional leafy vegetables.

KEYWORDS:

• Amaranth
• Chinese cabbage
• marketing
• nightshade
• nutrition
• postharvest losses

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. Keith Thompson

Prof. Keith Thompson is attached to Hamelmalo Agricultural College, Keren, Eritrea, and formally at the Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK.