Comparative Study of Mineral Composition of Some Selected Nigerian Green Leafy Vegetables from Two Different Regions

Vegetable often mean an edible part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed, which typically implies the leaf, stem or root of a plant. This study was carried out to evaluate the contributions of Nigerian leafy vegetables to nutrition and health. The mineral composition of four selected green leafy vegetables; water leaf(Talinum triangulare), fluted pumpkin (Telfaria occidentalis), bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and ukazi (Gnetum africanum) from two different locations (Awka in Anambra State and Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State) were investigated. The result of the experiment showed that the mineral content of the investigated vegetables are not significantly different by (p<0.05). Generally, Gnetum africanum sourced from Awka has the highest content of all the explored minerals with magnesium content being highest (245.96±0.33). The result indicated that the four investigated green leafy vegetables from these locations are good sources of minerals with Gnetum africanum having the highest content. Hence, the consumption of Gnetum africanum should be encouraged owing to its high content of minerals.