Profiling of minerals, water soluble vitamins and carotenoid in selected unconventional leafy and non-leafy vegetables of Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study was aimed at evaluating mineral contents, B-vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6), vitamin C, total carotenoids content and carotene composition of unconventional vegetables, comprising 7 leafy and 4 non-leafy, growing in Bangladesh. Investigated unconventional vegetables were found to have varied amount of minerals (0.04 ± 0.01 to 786.41 ± 6.37 mg/100 g), B-vitamins (0.06 ± 0.01 to 1.05 ± 0.13 mg/100 g) and vitamin C (5.23 ± 0.81 to 59.01 ± 2.23 mg/100 g). The study findings also revealed that the selected plant samples exhibited diverse amount of β-carotene ranging from 106.26 ± 5.32 µg/100 g EP in Orhor dal to 994.81 ± 21.01 µg/100 g EP in Orhor Pata whereas lutein content ranged from 7.76 ± 1.02 µg/100 g EP in Pahari Kolar Thor to 566.33 ± 20.63 µg/100 g EP in Kachuripana. It can be suggested that regular intake of these vegetables may contribute to daily minerals and vitamins requirement and can combat micronutrient deficiency.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Vegetables of Bangladesh
• carotenoids
• minerals
• unconventional vegetables
• vitamins

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Taxonomist Dr. Maksuda Khatun, Department of Botany, University of Dhaka, for the identification of plant material. The authors are also thankful to Mr. Anjan Kumar Roy, senior scientist, ICDDR,B for providing technical assistance. The authors would also like to extent their gratitude to the local communities in Gazipur, Mymensing and Chittagong hill tracts, who aided in the sample collection from the cultivation fields.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.