Nutritional aspects of wild plants,nutritional composition of Malva parviflora and Sisybrium irio
2001
Abousabaa, K.E.
Analyses were performed on the nutritional composition of the leaves of two wild leafy plants, Malva parviflora and Sysimbrium irio respectively, which are widely eaten in the Mediterranean region. Antioxidant contents (vitamin C,beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, glutathione, and total phenols), antioxidant activity, minerals (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn,and P and fatty acids were determined during plant development. The seeds were harvested from wild plants and grown in the greenhouse. Leaves were harvested for extraction every 10 days. The results showed that both plants contained considerable amounts of antioxidants, especially Malva parviflora, which reached levels of 88.37, 6.01, 6.19, and 199.29mg/100mg wet weight of vitamin C, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol and total phenols, were attained respectively. The glutathione content increased insignificantly during leaf development (4.85 and 4.84mg/100gm wet weight for Malva parviflora and Sisymbrium irio,respectively). Furthermore, this study showed Malva parvifloraand Sisymbrium irio leaves to represent respectively an antioxidant activity to EC50=25.59+-0.05 and EC50=43.97+-0.17. M. parviflora and S. irio, under the growing conditions maintained during the study, contained acceptable amount of nitrates. In addition Malva parviflora was found to be rich in Fe, Cu, Zn, P, and Mn and Sisymbrium irio to be a good source of Na, Ca, K, and MG. Both plants contained lineloic acid (omega-3) in moderate quantities (51.47mg/100gm weight for Malva parviflora and 13.32mg/100gm wet weight for Sisymbrium irio).
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This bibliographic record has been provided by Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari