Short communication VITAMIN C CONTENT IN TROPICAL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AVAILABLE IN DIFFERENT DISTRICTS OF BANGLADESH

A wide variety of food exists that contains vitamin C. Tropical Bangladesh is rich in fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of vitamin C and importance of these in human diet is universally recognised. Vitamin C content of some fruits and vegetables available in Bangladesh was reported Biswas et al.1 Recently we reported the vitamin C content of some fruits and vegetables available at Sylhet area in Bangladesh.2,3 There are many vegetables and fruits available at different district of Bangladesh. In our continuous study on the vitamin C content, we collected varieties of vegetables and fruits from different regions specially Chittagong, Comilla & Sylhet and estimated the amount of vitamin C in such samples. The content of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables found in Chittagong and Comilla may be different because the properties of soil and climate of this region is different. Therefore, a comparative study of vitamin C content of selected fruits and vegetables at Sylhet and Comilla districts were also considered. Here a well established chemical method (2,4-dinitrophenyl hydrazine methods-DNPH)4 was used as a simplified method for the simultaneous determination of the total vitamin C. Fruits such as orange, lemon etc contain high amount of vitamin C and vegetables such as Cabbage, Green pepper, Red pepper also have relatively high amount (7mg/100g to163mg/100g) vitamin C.5 In our study the samples were procured from Chittagong, Comilla and Sylhet and ascorbic acid content of these samples such as Gaab, Kacha Bel, Thankonipata, Metosh etc were determined. The content of vitamin C varied in fruits from 6.2 mg/100g to 495 mg/100 g and in vegetables 12 mg/100g to 70 mg/100g. The results are summarized in table 1