Nutritional characterisation and grouping of unconventional vegetables in Brazil

Abstract

Studies proving the food properties of some vegetable species are still incipient. Aiming to obtain deeper knowledge about the nutritional potentials, the scope of this work was to characterise the food compounds of interest, present in vegetables known as unconventional, in Brazil, and to group these species according to their chemical and nutritional similarities. Eight nutritional characteristics were evaluated in 10 species of unconventional vegetables, and representative samples of leaves, flowers and flower buds were collected. All species studied presented varying levels of nutritional compounds of interest, such as antioxidant activity, vitamin C, phenolics, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. There was great variation in the nutritional composition among the structures, species, and varieties analysed, which were organised into groups of nutritional similarities. The species Tropaeolum majus (leaves), Amaranthus hybridus and Stachys byzantina presented the highest values for antioxidant activity, phenolics, vitamin C, caloric value, carbohydrates and proteins, and, therefore, were characterised as an isolated group in a dendrogram.