Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN: 2231-6345 (Online) An Online International Journal Available at http://www.cibtech.org/jls.htm 2012 Vol. 2 (3) July-September, pp.65-67/Thakur et al. Research Article 65 POTENTIAL OF SOME WILD LEAFY VEGETABLES AS NATURAL SOURCE FOR SUPPLEMENTATION OF MICRONUTRIENTS IN VEGETARIAN DIETS OF SANTHAL PARGANA AREA OF JHARKHAND Sunita Thakur, *Sudhanshu Kumar 1 and Arvind Kumar 2 1 Department of Botany, P.P.K. College, Bundu, Birsa Agriculture University, Kanke, Ranchi 2 I/C AICRP, Micronutrients, Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, Birsa Agriculture University, Kanke, Ranchi *Author for Correspondence ABSTRACT Jharkhand is land of forest and hills. Tribal and other people residing in the area are dependent on forest produces besides agriculture. Many potherbs are consumed by the population of this area as nutritional supplement. Most of them are growing as weed. Some of these potherbs are sold in the village markets either fresh or in dried state. Authors have surveyed these village markets with an aim to identify scientifically those potherbs and also to get information about their medicinal value. Present communication reports about the micronutrient of some less known potherbs which are wild in nature in Santhal Pargana area. Key Words: Potherbs, Food Supplement, Micronutrient, Jharkhand INTRODUCTION Leafy vegetables generally a good source of vitamins, mineral and essential micronutrients in human body throughout the world. Scanty information are available in respect to this important aspect, earlier Gopalan et al., (1921-1925) had analyzed some essential micronutrient content in leafy vegetables and also in few wild species of plant in India. Cereal based staple food (rice and millets) are more popular in Jharkhand.These diets have poor bioavailability of iron and zinc Chiplonkar et al., (1993); Joshi and Agte (1995) leading to wide prevalence of iron – deficiency, anemia and Vitamin A Draper (1996). Recently innovation such as bio - fortification of iron in cereal crops have been given emphasis, but result was not encouraging, with high application of ferrous sulphate only 5 to 7mgkg -1 Fe content was increased in edible part of paddy this technique also are very costly and have a risk of producing iron toxicity on plant and may also pose a problem of non-acceptability due to change of colour, taste and quality in the fortified edible product. Mucosal cell damaging effects of unabsorbed ferrous sulphate in faecal matter have been indicated in healthy volunteers supplemented with highly bio- available iron as 100 mg ferrous sulphate Lund et al., (1999). So, natural micronutrient-rich foods like green leafy vegetables (potherbs) should turn out to be a better strategy. This fact has been also emphasized in the recent WHO guidelines for remedying iron deficiency through existing eating patterns Walker (1998). Considering these aspect a systematic approach have been undertaken to study the micronutrients viz Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn in some less known wild potherbs commonly intake in daily diet by local people in Jharkhand. MATERIALS AND METHOD Eleven species of less known wild leafy vegetables were collected from randomly selected villages (Kathikund, Nijhor, Gopikandar, Rangamission and Dumka proper) of Dumka district during (2009 - 2011). Plants were identified scientifically after considering Haines (1921-1925) and Ghosh (1971) recent nomenclatures of these taxa were confirmed on the basis of Singh et al., (2001). The plant materials collected were processed for cleaning, washing and drying as per prescribed scientific method. The materials were oven dried at 50 0 C for 4 days and kept in airtight containers. 0.5 gm processed plant