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Research Paper | Chemistry | India | Volume 13 Issue 1, January 2024
Effect of Cookware Material on the Iron Content in Green Leafy Vegetables
Neeta Azad | Neha Sharma [14] | Chayannika Singh | Jyotsna Ratan
Abstract: Iron is an essential component of haemoglobin which is responsible for carrying oxygen in various parts of the body. Deficiency of iron causes anemia which can further result in many serious health conditions. The focus of this study is to examine and suggest ways to improve cooking methods to increase iron content in daily diet. In this work, four green leafy vegetables (spinach, goosefoot, fenugreek leaves and mustard leaves) which are known to be good sources of iron and are also part of regular Indian diet have been selected. Their iron content was determined in uncooked and cooked form in iron and aluminium utensils. Since iron forms a coloured complex with 1, 10- phenanthroline, UV-visible spectroscopy has been used to determine iron content. The analysis employs Beer-Lambert law for the determination. The results show that the amount of ironcontent in vegetables increases significantly when cooked in iron utensils while it decreases in aluminium utensils. This study suggests that adopting Indian traditional ways of cooking involving iron utensils can contribute to fightiron deficiency problems. The use of aluminium utensils on the other hand, may cause aluminium to leach into food and consistent usage may cause harmful effects in body.
Keywords: Green vegetables, Iron deficiency, Aluminium utensils, Iron utensils, Spectrophotometer
Edition: Volume 13 Issue 1, January 2024,
Pages: 1534 - 1538