Optimization of onion, garlic and tomato fortification in dehusked mungbean preparation for enhanced iron bioaccessibility

The usage of onion, garlic and tomato in legume preparations is vogue in India but the amounts of these should be optimized to enhance iron bioavailability from legumes. Onion and tomato were added at four levels i.e. 25, 50, 75 and 100g each while garlic was added at the levels of 5, 10, 15 and 20g to 100 g of base legume (Mungbean dehusked) cooked in a traditional manner. The maximum in vitro iron bioaccessibility was when legume was fortified with garlic (224 to 344%) followed by tomato (204 to 284%) and onion (89 to 227%). Maximum increase in ascorbic acid was there when base legume was fortified with tomato while p-carotene and cysteine was increased to maximum when garlic was added. The fortification of onion (100g), tomato (100g) and garlic (20g) enhanced the bioaccessibility of iron from a legume preparation to 3.3, 3.8 and 4.4 folds, respectively.