ISHS Acta Horticulturae 483: International Symposium on Vegetable Quality of Fresh and Fermented Vegetables
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF NUTRIENT COMPONENTS IN CHINESE TRADITIONAL AND WILD VEGETABLES |
| Authors: | Y. Zhu, X. Wu, Q. Yuan, S. Song, Z. Wu |
| Keywords: | Vegetable, nutritional value, β-carotene, vitamin C |
| Abstract:
China is one of the biggest and oldest original centers for vegetables in the world. With a vast territory and a varied climate and soils, China has the world's richest resources of vegetable germplasm. According to an incomplete statistic, about 213 families, 815 genera and 1822 species of plants can be used as vegetables in China. Unfortunately, however, only 5% of these abundant resources have been developed as commercial vegetables (Chen et al., 1996). In this paper, the nutrient contents of 25 species of Chinese traditional and wild vegetables are reported, and 18 highly nutritive vegetables screened from 200 species Chinese traditional and wild vegetables are introduced as well. Some advanced analytical techniques were used to determine the nutritive content of these vegetables. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES, ICPS-1000II, Shimadzu) was used to detect five mineral elements, including potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC, 490 ultraviolet detector, Waters), a fiber analysis instrument (fibertec system M1020 Hot extractor, Tecator) and 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol titration methods were used to analyze  -carotene, crude fiber and vitamin C, respectively.
Although some vegetables introduced in this paper are not quite popular in the Chinese vegetable market, we believe these will be accepted by more and more people as their nutritional value becomes better understood.
| |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
