Leafy vegetables are good source of nutrients. The paper deals with the nutrient analyses of twenty seven leafy vegetables of South Odisha, India, most of which are less used or used at the time of food scarcity. The nutritive value such as crude protein, total sugar, total lipid, vitamin B1 and vitamin C of the selected leafy vegetables were analysed. Among the less consumed leafy vegetables Murraya koenigii, Tamarindus indicus, Cleome viscosa, Alternanthera sessilis, and Senna tora showed nearly 5% or more protein content. Murraya koenigii (18.7%) showed the highest total sugar content followed by Tamarindus indicus (18.1%), Corchorus aestuans (15%) while Tamarindus indicus showed the highest fat content (0.002%). Out of the selected leafy vegetables eighteen plant species showed no vitamin B1 content and eight showed no vitamin C content. Tamarindus indicus contains the highest vitamin B1 content followed by Bambusa bambos while Moringa oleifera showed the highest vitamin C content followed by Cleome viscosa. Some of these underutilised leaves may be useful as food and medicine that are required in small quantities to cure some of the diseases the tribal and rural poor suffer from.
