Effect of Different Cooking Methods on the Content of Vitamin C, Phenolics and Minerals in Several Green Leafy Vegetables
Abstract
Background and Objective: The consumption of green leafy vegetables are very important for human health. The nutrient quality such as vitamin C, phenolics and mineral (Fe, Zn, Mg) of green leafy vegetables may be decreased or increased by thermal-processing. This study evaluated the effect of different thermal cooking methods including boiling, steaming and stir-frying on the content of vitamin C, phenolics and mineral (Fe, Zn, Mg) in several green leafy vegetables. Materials and Methods: Observation in a laboratory experiment was done using iodine titration method, spectrophotometric Folin-Ciocalteu method and atomic absorption spectrophotometric method for determination of vitamin C, phenolics and minerals in control and treated samples, respectively. Results: Boiling process had maintained the vitamin C better than steaming and stir frying. The changes in the amount of phenolics were found to be significantly higher in stir- frying. Furthermore, the mineral contents was not affected in all cooking methods. Conclusion: In the present study, the boiling and stir-frying method of cooking has found to be the best for healthy eating of treated green leafy vegetables
Keywords:
Boiling process, cooking methods, green leafy vegetables, healthy food, heat processing, steaming, stir fryingArticle Metrics
License
Copyright (c) 2020 The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.