DETERMINATION OF IRON CONTENT IN SELECTED INDIGENOUS GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES IN BARATON, KENYA
Date
2016-03-13Author
Anthoney, Swamy T
Nyabwari, Loice Kerubo
Obey, Jackie K
Magut, Hillary
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A study was done to determine the level of iron in selected indigenous vegetables using UV-vis
spectrophotometric method. The four indigenous vegetables that was frequently consumed by Baraton families
were; amaranths, pumpkin leaves, spider plant, and bacella alba, were selected for the study. Absorbance
measurement was done on the ash samples of cooked and uncooked vegetables using UV-Vis
spectrophotometer at 458 nm. The results showed among the uncooked vegetables, the iron concentration
ranged from 0.081 to 0.23 ppm with pumpkin leaves and baccela alba recording the lowest and highest level
respectively. The cooked vegetables had Fe levels ranging for 0.041 ppm to 0.43 ppm with pumpkin leaves and
amaranths having lowest and highest Fe levels respectively. One sample t-test analysis showed that there was no
significant difference between the Fe levels in the cooked and uncooked vegetables P>0.05. The findings
showed that the sampled vegetables are a source of iron in diet.