Estimation of Folate (Vitamin B9) in fresh Lactuca sativa (Lettuce), Spinancia oleracea (Spinach) and Brassica oleracea (Cabbage)

An attempt was made to extract and estimate Vitamin B9 (folate) from 3 different vegetables namely Lactuca sativa (Lettuce), Spinacia oleracea (Spinach) and Brassica oleracea (Cabbage) from four locations using dibasic potassium phosphate at a temperature of 60 ° UV double beam spectrophotometer was used to determine the absorbance at 550 nm using Rangana procedure. Close range values were obtained for the three vegetables when the concentration of folate was determined. For cabbage, the concentration of folate in 50 g was found to be 6.25 – 6.67 mg in the four locations, for spinach the concentration in 50 g was 15.0 15.80 mg in all the four locations, while in 50 g Spinach, it was 14.17 mg. For all the three plant species, Spinach had the highest concentration of folate.Keywords: folate, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, spectrophotometryJournal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, Vol. 7 No. 2 (2010)