Nutritional and toxic factors in selected wild edible plants.

Nutritional (ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid and carotenes); antinutritional and toxic components (oxalic acid, nitrate and erucic acid) were determined in sixteen popular species of wild edible plants which are collected for human consumption in southeast Spain. Ascorbic + dehydroascorbic acids contents were very high in several species, especially in Chenopodium album L. (155 mg/100 g). Carotenoid content ranged from 4.2 mg/100 g (Stellaria media Villars) to 15.4 mg/100 g (Amaranthus viridis L.). A range of values was found for oxalic acid from absence to 1100 mg/100 g of plant material. Nitrate contents ranged from 47 mg/100 g (Salicornia europaea L.) to 597 mg/100 g (Amaranthus viridis L.). Low amounts of erucic acid were found in the Cruciferae family (Sisymbrium irio L. 1.73%; Cardaria draba L. 1.23%) and Plantago major L. 3.45%.