Preparation of value added products from dehydrated bathua leaves (Chenopodium album Linn.)

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1 , Vol. 6(1), 2007, pp.6-10 Research Article Preparation of value added products from dehydrated bathua leaves (Chenopodium album Linn.) L Singh 1, N Yadav 1, A R Kumar 1 *, A K Gupta 2, J Chacko 3, K Parvin 1 and U Tripathi 1 1 Department of Foods and Nutrition 2 Department of Biochemistry 3 Department of Agricultural Process and Food Engineering College of Home Science & Women s Development Allahabad Agricultural Institute Deemed University, Allahabad , Uttar Pradesh, India *Correspondent author, registrar@aaidu.org Received 13 July 2005; Accepted 29 November 2006 Abstract Green leafy vegetables form an important part of daily diet. Since these are produced in surplus and have short shelf-life, preservation of vegetables can prevent wastage and increase availability in the diet during off-season. Bathua (Chenopodium album Linn.) leaves, rich in micronutrients were selected for dehydration. Leaves were tray dried at o C for three to four hours till the moisture reached to 6-7 per cent. These dehydrated leaves were incorporated at 3-15 per cent levels in two conventional foods namely green gram dal and paratha. Organoleptic properties of products were judged by nine point hedonic scale. Proximate composition, iron content and carotene content of leaves and products were analyzed. Results showed that dehydrated leaves were rich source of protein, carbohydrate and ash. Iron and carotene contents of dehydrated bathua leaves (27.48mg/100g and 14826µg/100g, respectively) were 6-8 times higher than fresh leaves. Green gram dal and paratha incorporated with 7 and 5 per cent dehydrated bathua leaves were liked most. Iron content of green gram dal (8.8mg/100g) and paratha incorporated with dehydrated bathua leaves was higher than their respective control. In comparison to control enriched paratha ( ±0.6µg/100g) and green gram dal (984 ±1.8µg/100g) had many fold greater carotene content. Therefore, it can be concluded that incorporation of dehydrated bathua leaves in various conventional food items can improve the nutritional quality of the products as well as add variety in the diet. Keywords: Food products, Dehydrated Bathua leaves, Leafy vegetable, Chenopodium album. IPC code; Int. cl. 8 A23B 7/02, A23L 1/20, A23L 3/00 Introduction Balanced diets are not accessible to a large population of the world, particularly those in developing countries. Maximum population in developing countries is affected by malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency. In India, malnutrition is a major nutritional problem, which is responsible for about per cent of the infant deaths. In India, per cent of pre school 6 children, per cent of women in their reproductive age and 50 per cent of the women in late pregnancy suffer from anaemia 1. Micronutrient malnutrition poses a serious threat to the health of vulnerable groups of population. Among the plant foods green leafy vegetables are the cheapest and locally available food rich in micronutrients. According to the estimates of the National Horticultural Board the national Bathua leaves production of vegetables stood at million from a cropped area of 5.6 million hectare in 1997, with India taking second position in the world 2. The green revolution with its increased global caloric output is said to have contributed to micronutrient malnutrition afflicting more than 40% of the world population. Green leafy vegetables are highly perishable, on the other hand availability of these vegetables to the population is also affected due to post-harvest losses, storage, handling and transport. Preservation processing of vegetables can prevent wastage during glut and increase availability of vegetables in the diet during lean periods 3. Bathua is an important green leafy vegetable, high in nutritional value and rich in vitamin A

2 and iron. It is found growing as a weed in wheat fields and removed by using herbicides and weedicides. Among various methods of preservation, dehydration of vegetables is one of the most popular and oldest methods. Dehydration increases the storage period of green leafy vegetables and make them available throughout the year even in off-season, thus supplying the important nutrients in a concentrated form. Bathua leaves can easily be dehydrated by several methods like sun drying, tray drying and cabinet drying. Dehydrated foods are more concentrated source of minerals than any other preserved form of foodstuff. Dehydrated bathua can be added in various food products in order to increase their nutritive value. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to explore possibilities of using the dehydrated leaves of bathua to enrich the various conventional food items. Materials and Methods Fresh sample of bathua (Chenopodium album Linn.) leaves were procured from the local market of Allahabad city. Blanching was avoided due to undesirable colour and increased losses of soluble solids 4, 5. Healthy leaves were sorted after washing in running water, chopped in to desired shape and size, spread on trays to remove excess water and then dried at a temperature of 50 to 60ºC for 3-4 hours till 6-7 per cent moisture content remains. The dried leaves were stored in plastic bags for chemical analysis. Chemical analysis The proximate composition of the leaves and products was determined by AOAC (1980) method 6. The iron contents of the leaves were also determined by the same method, whereas for estimation of total carotene Jensens (1978) method 7 was adopted. β-carotene could not be estimated. The values are in the form of total carotene content on dry weight basis, although it is preferable to estimate β-carotene. Preparation of value added products Products namely green gram dal and paratha were developed by incorporating dehydrated bathua leaves. Incorporation level of bathua leaves in green gram dal was 3, 5 and 7 per cent, whereas in paratha it was incorporated at 5, 10 and 15 per cent levels in wheat flour. Economics of the preparation Economics of the enriched food products, i.e. green gram dal and paratha was worked out and it was found that green gram dal costed Rs and paratha costed Rs per serving. Bathua paratha Results and Discussion Dehydration of bathua leaves On dehydration moisture content of bathua leaves was brought down to 6-7 per cent; they were dried at controlled temperature. The green colour of vegetables became dull to some extent and the texture became crispy. The per cent yield of dehydrated bathua leaves from fresh leaves was found to be 12. The average duration of drying was about 3-4 hours which is quite similar to the cabinet drying time period of spinach and fenugreek given by Bhosle and Arya (2004) 8. Proximate composition of fresh and dehydrated bathua leaves The moisture content of fresh and dehydrated bathua leaves were 87.5 and 6.3 per cent, respectively. Crude protein, crude fat, total ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate content of dehydrated bathua leaves were found to be increased significantly when compared with those of fresh leaves (Table 1). Iron and total carotenoid content of dehydrated leaves Iron and carotene content of dehydrated bathua leaves were mg/100 g and µg/100g, respectively, which were 6-8 times greater than the fresh values i.e mg/100g and 1740µg/100g, respectively. Lakshmi and Vimla (2000) 9 have also reported that dehydrated green leafy vegetable powders retained good amount of protein, fibre and mineral and fair amount of ascorbic acid and β-carotene. Sensory evaluation of the products On hedonic scale the scores for overall acceptability of green gram dal at 7 per cent level of incorporation and Vol 6(1) January-February

3 Table 1: Proximate composition of fresh and dehydrated bathua leaves per 100 g Particulars Moisture Total Crude Crude Crude Carbohydrate (%) Ash (g) Fibre (g) Fat (g) Protein (g) (g) Fresh leaves 87.5± ± ± ± ± ±0.96 Dehydrated 6.3± ± ± ± ± ±0.85 leaves Table 2 : Average mean scores of green gram dal incorporated with dehydrated bathua leaves per 100 g Treatments Colour Texture Flavour Taste Overall acceptability 6.54± ± ± ± ±0.07 (3%) 7.0± ± ± ± ±0.06 (5%) 7.12± ± ± ± ±0.18 (7%) 7.56± ± ± ± ±0.11 Table 3 : Average mean scores of paratha incorporated with dehydrated bathua leaves per 100 g Treatments Colour Texture Flavour Taste Overall acceptability 7.88± ± ± ± ±0.08 (5%) 7.46± ± ± ± ±0.09 (10%) 7.26± ± ± ± ±0.06 (15%) 6.68± ± ± ± ±0.11 paratha at 5 per cent level of incorporation were highest, whereas all the treatments of green gram dal and paratha were also found to be acceptable by the panel members. Paratha at 10 and 15 per cent incorporation levels were also liked moderately. Thus, it is obvious from the Tables 2 and 3 that the green gram dal and paratha at 7 per cent and 5 per cent level of incorporation, respectively were best regarding the colour, texture, 8 flavour, taste and overall acceptability. Nutritional composition of value added products Proximate composition of green gram dal and paratha Proximate composition of green gram dal and paratha incorporated with dehydrated bathua leaves are given in Tables 4 and 5, respectively. Results showed that the crude protein, crude fibre and total ash values of both the products increased slightly, whereas moisture, crude fat and carbohydrate values decreased. It might be due to the replacement of other ingredients with dehydrated bathua leaves. However, it was observed that calorific values did not differ much in control and supplemented or treated samples and 100g of the product can provide good amount of calories.

4 Table 4 : Proximate composition of Green gram dal supplemented with dehydrated bathua leaves per 100 g Treatments Moisture Protein Fat Fibre Ash Carbohydrate Calories (%) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (Kcal) 76.8± ± ± ± ± ± (3%) 76.4± ± ± ± ± ± (5%) 76.0± ± ± ± ± ± (7%) 74.8± ± ± ± ± ± Table 5 : Proximate composition of paratha supplemented with dehydrated bathua leaves per 100 g Treatments Moisture Protein Fat Fibre Ash Carbohydrate Calories (%) (g) (g) (g) (g) (g) (Kcal) 26.46± ± ± ±.16.90± ± (5%) 24.93± ± ± ± ± ± (10%) 24.7± ± ± ± ± ± (15%) 24.0± ± ± ± ± ± Iron content of green gram dal and paratha The iron content of green gram dal and paratha with and without incorporation of dehydrated bathua leaves are given in Table 6. Results revealed that treatment with 7 per cent level has maximum iron content in green gram dal in all four treatments (2.09 mg/100g). Results revealed that iron content increased as the incorporation level of dehydrated bathua leaves increased in making paratha. i.e. (15 per cent incorporation level) which was also acceptable at sensory score 6.62±0.11 has got highest iron content i.e. 8.81mg/ 100g. So this treatment can also be recommended in our communities where iron deficiency anaemia is highly prevalent. Table 6 : Iron and carotene content of paratha and green gram dal supplemented with dehydrated bathua leaves Treatments Paratha Treatments Dal Iron Total carotene Iron Total carotene (mg/100g) (µg/100g) (mg/100g) (µg/100g) T o 6.13± ±1.9 T o 1.24± ±0.87 (5%) 6.96± ±1.6 (3%) 2.05± ±6.7 (10%) 7.86± ±0.93 (5%) 2.07± ±3.5 (15%) 8.81± ±2.0 (7%) 2.09± ±1.8 Vol 6(1) January-February

5 Total carotene content of green gram dal and paratha Dehydrated bathua leaves are concentrated source of carotene. So its incorporation in paratha at different levels increased its carotene content significantly i. e. from 42.6µg/100g to µg/100g (Table 6). Carotene content of green gram dal incorporated with dehydrated bathua leaves showed increased values of carotene at different levels of incorporation. The value was the highest at 7 per cent level of incorporation (984 µg/100g) (Table 6). Conclusion It can be concluded from the results that the incorporation of dehydrated bathua leaves in various conventional food items can improve the nutritional quality of the products as well as add variety in the diet. Acknowledgements We are indebted to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for the financial support during the course of this study. References 1. Rai LPW, Selwa M, Sahni RC and Bhatia B, Physical and mental fatigue may be due to iron deficiency anaemia, 1 st Edn, Anubav Rai Publication, 38, 1999, pp Manmohan A, Tool for productivity gains, Survey of Indian Agriculture, The Hindu, 2000, Shekhawat GS and Egekiel R, Potato: potential as a staple food, Survey of Indian Agriculture, The Hindu, 1990, Baloch AK, Buckle KA and Edwards RA, Effect of processing variables on the quality of dehydrated carrot: Leaching losses and carotenoid content, J Food Technol, 1997, 12, Arya SS, Natesan V, Parihar DB and Vijayaraghvan PK, Stability of β-carotene in isolated systems, J Food Technol, 1979, 14, AOAC, 1980, Official methods of analysis (12 th Edn), Association of official analytical chemists, Washington, DC. 7. Jensens A, Chlorophylls and carotenoids, Handbook of Physiological methods: Physiological and biochemical methods, by JA Hedlebust and JS Craigie (Eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1978, pp Bhosle BS and Arya AB, Effect of different modes of drying on moisture content and drying time of selected vegetables, Indian J Nutr Diet, 2004, 41, Lakshmi B and Vimala VA, Nutritive value of dehydrated green leafy vegetable powders, J Food Sci Technol, 2000, 37(5),