Side Streams of Broccoli Leaves: A Climate Smart and Healthy Food Ingredient

Emilia Berndtsson, Roger Andersson, Eva Johansson and Marie E. Olsson
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Emilia Berndtsson: Department of Plant breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden
Roger Andersson: Department of Molecular Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE- 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Eva Johansson: Department of Plant breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden
Marie E. Olsson: Department of Plant breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: Human consumption of fruits and vegetables are generally below recommended levels. Waste from the production, e.g., of un-used parts such as broccoli leaves and stem when producing broccoli florets for food, is a sustainability issue. In this study, broccoli leaves were analyzed for the content of various dietary fibre and phenolics, applying the Uppsala method and HPLC analyses, respectively. The results showed that broccoli leaves had comparable levels of dietary fibre (26%–32% of dry weight (DW)) and phenolic compounds (6.3–15.2 mg/g DW) to many other food and vegetables considered valuable in the human diet from a health perspective. A significant positive correlation was found among soluble dietary fibre and phenolic acids indicating possible bindings between these components. Seasonal variations affected mainly the content of conjugated phenolics, and the content of insoluble dietary fibre. This study verified the importance of the use of broccoli production side streams (leaves) as they may contribute with health promoting components to the human diet and also socio-economic and environmental benefits to the bioeconomic development in the society.

Keywords: broccoli; dietary fiber; gut microbiota; health; leaves; phenolic compounds; side steams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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