Evaluation of Proximate Composition , Vitamin and Mineral Contents of Aqueous Extract of Betel Leaf (Piper betel)

Betel leaf is a medicinal herb distributed all around Bangladesh and many other countries throughout the world. In this study, three local varieties of betel leaves were investigated for their proximate compositions and nutritional evaluation of vitamins and minerals. At the mature stage, Kal Bangla variety contained the maximum amount of moisture (85.44%) while Doga variety contained the maximum amount of ash (3.26%) and fiber (2.29%). Moisture content decreased gradually with the advances in maturity while ash, fiber, carbohydrate, protein and lipid contents increased steadily from premature to over mature stage. The highest amount of carbohydrate and protein was measured in Doga variety while Shail variety contained the most amount of lipid in all maturity stages. At mature stage, Doga variety contained 3.58% of carbohydrate and 4.92% of protein while Shail variety contained 0.72% of lipid. Doga pan was also observed to contain maximum amount of vitamin A (7.21 mg%), vitamin B1 (36.02 g%) and vitamin B2 (0.78 g%), whereas Kal Bangla pan contained the most amount of vitamin C (341 mg%). All six minerals were found highest in Kal Bangla variety which contains 877.51 mg, 19.64 mg, 3257.82 mg, 57.33 mg, 4.83 mg and 9.78 mg calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc and iron respectively per 100 g of fresh leaf at the mature stage. Betel leaf was found to be a rich source of nutrients with sufficient quantities of vitamins and minerals. This study indicated that the regular consumption of betel leaf would be advantageous to combat malnutrition and other health disorders in most developing countries.