Nutritional and Proximate Composition of Portulaca quadrifida L. as Affected by Selected Drying Techniques
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Portulaca quadrifida L. commonly called as chickenweed, is a summer annual, underutilized green leafy vegetable known for this phytochemical importance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of sun drying and hot-air oven drying on the nutritional composition of P. quadrifida L. Pre-treated sample was subjected to sun drying and hot air oven drying and further analyzed for the nutritional composition using standard AOAC procedures. The nutritional composition of both dried powders differed significantly (p < 0.05) for proximate and mineral and vitamin content. From the results, they contain 5.38 to 6.0% of moisture, 29.12-28.26 g/100g of protein, 6.60-6.12 g/100g of ash, 8.44-7.37 g/100g of crude fiber, 1484.52-1324.84 mg/100 g of calcium, 137.67-126.21 mg/100 g of phosphorus, and 418.10-393.33 mg/100 g of magnesium and 260.59- 209.35 mg/100 g of vitamin A, which were all significantly higher in sun dried sample. On the contrary, fat content (3.18–3.65 g/100 g), carbohydrate content (47.82–48.09 g/100 g), iron concentration (18.01-17.61 mg/100 g) and vitamin C (215.87- 197.11mg/100 g) though higher in sun dried sample, did not differ significantly across the drying processes (p > 0.05).
Institution: Karnataka State Women's University
Language: English
Topic: Food Drying and Modeling
Subfield: Food Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7172451925