Vegetables provide adequate amount of vitamins and minerals for humans and contain some bioactive compounds which have free radical scavenging activity against reactive oxygen species that are known to cause damage to human cells. The study was conducted to quantify Vitamin-C content and other major elements such as Na, K, Ca, Mg and P of local vegetables namely; spring onion, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, Karkashi and lettuce leaves eaten as food in Jos-South Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. Fresh vegetables were separately reduced into pieces and blended with 50 ml distilled water using ‘Calamansi’ juice extractor, filtered and then marked up to 100 ml with distilled water. The extracted juice was titrated against standardized iodine solution after its initial volume was noted until a permanent dark-blue color was obtained and the final volume of iodine solution in the burette recorded. The concentration of Vitamin-C was calculated using the standard equation: Mg (Vitamin-C)=M (Iodine solution) X ml (iodine solution) X 176.12 g/mole, where Mg is the concentration of Vitamin-C, M is the concentration of iodine solution, ml is the volume of iodine solution used and 176.12 g/mole is the molar mass of Vitamin-C. The elemental analysis was done on dried samples using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The data were analyzed using WHO daily requirement standard for vitamin-C (45 mg/day); Calcium (1000-1200 mg/day); Potassium (4500-4700 mg/day); Magnesium (320-420 mg/day); Sodium (1200-1500 mg/day) and Phosphorus (580-1055 mg/day) and student’s t-test to evaluate the significant difference between the mean value of the measured parameters in the respective test and control samples. The Vitamin-C content of the samples were found to be 43.04 ± 0.90, 17.09 ± 1.55, 28.48 ± 1.55, 29.12 ± 0.90 and 12.03 ± 0.90 mg/100 ml for spring onion, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, Karkashi and lettuce respectively; Spring onion contained Na (3335), K (14000), Ca (2900) and Mg (2500) ppm, Cabbage contained Na (1665), K (5000), Ca (755) and Mg (2800) ppm, Chinese cabbage contained Na (1665), K (25000), Ca (5100) and Mg (2600) ppm, Karkashi contained Na (555), K (14000), Ca (2475) and Mg (2700) ppm and lettuce which was found to contain Na (2220), K (30500), Ca (1755) and Mg (2700) ppm. Phosphorus (P) was not detectable in all the vegetables. The results revealed that the vegetables contained appreciable amount of Vitamin-C and Na, K, Ca and Mg and should be included in diets to supplement the daily allowance needed by the body to meet the nutritional requirement of normal growth and adequate protection against diseases.
