Nutritional value of conventional, wild and organically produced fruits and vegetables available in Baja California Sur markets

Abstract

The consumption of fruits and vegetables is of great importance in the treatment and prevention of aging, cancer and chronic-degenerative diseases caused by oxidative stress, which in turn causes the release of reactive oxygen chemical species. The demand of organic food is on the rise, and it is reflected in the significant growth of 11% in the organic food trading in the United States, the world's largest organic market. More farmers are actually producing on more certified organic land and up to now 179 countries reported activities in organic agriculture. Vegetables analyzed for this study were obtained from commercial shopping centers of the city of La Paz Baja California Sur, and were classified in four groups: tomatoes, peppers, citrus fruit and leafy vegetables; conventional, wild and organically produced. The 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) technique was used to measure the antioxidant activity of the plant extracts. Tomato grape organic certified with 1,273 trolox equivalent mg per gram of sample presented the highest antioxidant power. Additionally; certified organic bell pepper had the highest antioxidant power with 1,119 mg equivalent of trolox gram of sample. With regard to the group of citrus fruits, we found that the wild naranjitas had higher antioxidant power with 1.623 mg trolox equivalent per gram of sample. Finally, as far as the leafy vegetables group, wild quelite showed the highest antioxidant power with 1,313 mg trolox equivalent per gram of sample.