Oxalate content of the herb Good-King-Henry, Blitum bonus-henricus

Li, W.; Savage, Geoffrey P.

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Oxalate content of the herb Good-King-Henry, Blitum bonus-henricus

Li, W. ; Savage, Geoffrey P.

Type: Journal Article

Permalink: https://hdl.handle.net/10182/6607

Originally published: 2015-05-12 by MDPI and available at http://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/4/2/140 ;

Rights: © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords: total; soluble and insoluble oxalates; good-king-henry leaves; stems and buds; pesto; soup

Abstract:

The total, soluble and insoluble oxalate contents of the leaves, stems and buds of Good-King-Henry (Blitum Bonus-Henricus) were extracted and measured using HPLC chromatography. The large, mature leaves contained 42% more total oxalate than in the small leaves and the soluble oxalate content of the large leaves was 33% higher than the smaller leaves. Cooking the mixed leaves, stems and buds in boiling water for two minutes significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the total oxalate when compared to the raw plant parts. Pesto sauce made from mixed leaves contained 257 mg total oxalate/100 g fresh weight; this was largely made up of insoluble oxalates (85% of the total oxalate content). Soup made from mixed leaves contained lower levels of total oxalates (44.26 ± 0.49 mg total oxalate/100 g fresh weight) and insoluble oxalate made up 49% of the oxalate contents. The levels of oxalates in the Good-King-Henry leaves were high, suggesting that the leaves should be consumed occasionally as a delicacy because of their unique taste rather than as a significant part of the diet. However, the products made from Good-King-Henry leaves indicated that larger amounts could be consumed as the oxalate levels were reduced by dilution and processing.

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