Abstract
The flow injection analysis (FIA) method, which enables the simple and rapid measurement of nitrate and nitrite, was applied to six kinds of vegetable: spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. ), komatsuna (Brassica campestris L. ), Japanese radish (Raphanus sativusL.), celery (Apium graveolens L. var. dulce DC. ), cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata L. )and jew's mallow (Corchorus Olitorius. L). The effectiveness of this method was confirmed by an addition test with more than 93% recovery of nitrite from komatsuna, Japanese radish and jew's mallow. The nitrite and nitrate contents of spinach, komatsuna, Japanese radish, celery and cabbage were similar to those in other reports. The nitrite content of jew's mallow varied from 142.1 mg to 1,026.8 mg/100g of fresh weight according to individual specimens, while the nitrate content varied from 1.3 mg to 1.8 mg/100 g of fresh weight.
