The nutritive and anti-nutritive components in the Nigerian-cultivated red cabbage vegetable and aqueous extracts

Abstract

The inclusion of red cabbage vegetables in locally prepared meals is gradually becoming popular and quickly gaining acceptability. The study, therefore, seeks to quantify the nutrients, estimate the phytochemicals, and determine the antioxidant capacity of the Nigerian-cultivated red cabbage vegetable. The analyses were executed in line with accepted standard procedures. On analysis, the vegetable was shown to contain a higher percentage of carbohydrate (45.72±1.96), moisture (23.23 ±0.29), and proteins (15.05±0.35), compared to the ash content (5.01±0.04), lipids (7.23±0.98) and fibre (3.77±0.32). The vitamin content ranged from 60.43±0.05 for vitamin C to 0.02± 0.15 for vitamin B2, occurring in the order: C>E>A>B12>B9>D>B3>B6>B1 and B2. A total of 35 phytochemical compounds were identified with appreciable levels of antioxidant capacity. This proves that the red cabbage vegetable grown in Nigeria is compact with nutrients which can be fully maximized when the anti-nutrients are minimized.