Nutritive Value of Selected Dehydrated Green Leafy Vegetables

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency is widely prevalent, particularly in the developing world. Vitamin A deficiency contributes to blindness by making the eye very dry and promoting damage to the retina of the eye. Other signs include dry skin, broken finger nails and decreased resistance to infection. Recent analysis by WHO indicated that there are approximately 727 million and 4.4 million pre-school children with vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia respectively. The three major approaches to combat vitamin A deficiency are supplementation, food fortification and dietary diversification. Among the possible strategies, dietary diversification is the sustainable approach to combat the situation. Among the plant foods, green leafy vegetables are the cheapest and locally available foods rich in provitamin A carotenoids.