USE OF VEGETABLES AS NUTRITIONAL FOOD: ROLE IN HUMAN HEALTH

Vegetables included in daily schedule of diet viz. Sweet Pepper, Cauliflower, Carrot, Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, Tomato, Potato, Reddish, and Bottle Gourd were analyzed for their proximate composition, vitamin and mineral contents to evaluate their importance in human nutrition. The results showed that almost all vegetables contain appreciable amount of essential nutrients. Moisture content was high ranging from 77 % in potato to 94.5 % in bottle gourd followed by carbohydrate in all selected vegetables. Crude protein, Crude fiber and ash were in range from 0.9 to 2.1%, 0.3 to 1.2 % and 0.5 % to 1.1 % respectively. Sweet pepper was found to be highest in crude fiber content. Vegetables intake is beneficial for obese, as they furnish fat to a lesser extent. Minerals in dry weight basis were found in different concentration in all vegetables. K was the most abundant mineral followed by P and Ca. Some vegetables constitute appreciable amount of Na. Potato contained 240 mg/100gm K, but Calcium (8 mg/100gm) was deficient in it. Na was found high (63.9 mg/100gm) in reddish. P and Ca concentration was found 84mg/100gm and 76 mg/100gm respectively in Spinach, which is also an efficient source of Fe 6mg/100gm. comparatively, tomato contained less amount of P (27 mg/100g). Cabbage was found deficient in Fe (0.51 mg/100gm). All the vegetables analyzed, are poor source of Cr. Vitamin analysis confirmed that selected vitamins were found high in spinach followed by cauliflower and tomato. Carrot contains minimum amount of water soluble vitamin among various vegetables. Thiamine was relatively in higher amount than niacin and riboflavin