Development of underutilized Celosia argentea based value added product and its impact on haemoglobin status of adolescent girls

In India, various types of underutilised foods are available seasonally but are not utilised to the extent they should be despite their high nutritive value. Looking into the high prevalence of over- and undernutrition, these underutilised foods can be explored to overcome nutritional disorders. In view of this, the underutilised green leafy vegetable Celosia argentea was analysed for proximate composition, minerals, vitamin content and anti-nutritional factors, using standard procedures. On the basis of nutritional analysis, C. argentea was utilised for the development of value added products. It was incorporated into 3 conventional recipes at different levels. Sensory evaluation of the developed products was done using 9-point hedonic scale. Celosia argentea contains an appreciable amount of iron so it was used in a study to improve the haemoglobin status of adolescent girls. Dehydrated C. argentea leaves at 20% level of incorporation were utilised to enrich “mathri”. 100 adolescent girls (16-18 years), 60 of whom were anaemic, were selected for the study. Dietary intake of the subjects was collected using the 24-hour dietary recall method; anthropometric measurements and clinical signs and symptoms of anaemia were recorded. Supplementation of 100 g “mathri” was administered to the experimental subjects for six weeks. Moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrate and energy content of underutilised C. argentea were found to be 84.39±0.13 g, 3.06±0.05 g, 1.45±0.23 g, 1.25±0.03 g, 0.68±0.04 g, 9.06±0.15 g, 53±0.45 g/100 g respectively. Values obtained for iron, calcium, vitamin C and β-carotene content of C. argentea were 26.48±0.14 mg, 170.6±2.17 mg, 60.6±7.07 mg, 2166±136 µg/100 g respectively. The mean haemoglobin levels of the experimental group and control group were 8.71 g/dl and 9.28 g/dl respectively after supplementation. Due to supplementation, there was significant rise in the weight and haemoglobin levels (14.3%) (P<=0.01) of the subjects in the experimental group, whereas the change in the control group was non-significant. This supplementation of C. argentea based product “mathri” can significantly improve the haemoglobin status of adolescent girls.