Effect of Cooking on the Oxalate Content of Selected Thai Vegetables.docVIP

Food and Nutrition Sciences, 2012, 3, 1631-1635 1631 /10.4236/fns.2012.312213 Published Online December 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/fns) Effect of Cooking on the Oxalate Content of Selected Thai Vegetables Onladda Juajun , Leo Vanhanen , Chancherdchai Sangketkit , Geoffrey Savage 1 2 1 2* 1 Agro-Industry Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, Surin Campus, Na- khon Ratchasima, Thailand; Food Group, Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. 2 Email: savage@lincoln.ac.nz * Received September 26 , 2012; revised October 26 , 2012; accepted November 4 , 2012 th th th ABSTRACT Total and soluble oxalate content levels were measured in thirteen selected vegetables purchased from a local market in Surin Province in the northeast of Thailand. Total oxalate contents of the leaves, shoots and roots of the fresh vegetables ranged from 249.5 ± 12.1 to 7597.9 ± 77.6 mg oxalate/100g dry matter (DM) while soluble oxalate content ranged from 205.0 ± 2.3 to 2677.6 ± 19.0 mg oxalate/100g DM. Very high levels of total oxalates were found in three of the selected Thai vegetables, Polygonum odoratum (7597.9 ± 77.6 mg/100g DM), Piper aurantaucum (7026.6 ± 76.9 mg/100g DM) and Limnophila aromatica (6179.0 ± 23.6 mg/100g DM). However, the soluble oxalate content of L. aromatica was low and the highest soluble oxalate contents of fresh vegetables were found in P. odoratum, P. aurantuacum and Nep- tunia oleracea at 2677.6 ± 19.0, 2152.2 ± 65.3 and 1640.8 ± 3.4 mg/100g DM, respectively. Boiling the vegetables re- duced the soluble oxalate content between 30.4 and 65.0%. The insol