Effect of drying methods on the nutritional content and In-vitro Antioxidant capacity of Chenopodium album L. and Spinacia oleracea L.

The herbs, Chenopodium album Linn. and Spinacia oleracea Linn. belongs to Chenopodiaceae family, are the two nutritious and edible green leafy food crops, abundantly found especially in the northern-west region of India. These plants have gained renown popularity, because of their high nutritional content including protein, amino acids, carbohydrate, and even the presence of phenolic components, which ultimately may get affected with drying and storage techniques. Impact of different drying methods (microwave drying at 4 minutes, hot air oven drying at 5 hours and sun drying at 8–10 hours) on nutrient quality and antioxidant property of Chenopodium album Linn. and Spinacia oleracea Linn. leaves were evaluated by using UV spectrophotometritc assay, total phenolic content and DPPH free radical scavenger method. Drying treatments were significantly decreased the moisture, carbohydrate and protein content present in C. album and S. oleracea. Hot air oven drying method produced dried samples of C.album and S. oleracea had significantly similar antioxidant activity when compared with the samples obtained from sun drying method. The dried samples obtained from hot air oven drying technique showed significant presence of total phenolic content in C. album and S. oleracea (6.44±0.12 mg/g, 6.69±0.40 mg/g) whilst the traditional sun drying method produced 8.00±0.02 mg/g and 7.89±0.37 mg/g). It is concluded that microwave drying and hot air oven drying were the methods to preserve appreciable percentage of nutrient components compared to the fresh samples. On other hand, the traditional method produced substantial reduction of nutrient quality. From statistical analysis, hot air oven drying technique was considered as optimum method which showed satisfactory % retention of protein (65.86%) and carbohydrate (85.95%) at 5 hours (shorter time than sun drying time period) along with significant antioxidant activity (34.89 μg/mL and 35.60 μg/mL) similar as obtained from the traditional technique (32.00 μg/mL).