1.1 Introduction
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Vegetables are considered very important part of human diet not only in developing countries like Nigeria but all over the world. Nigeria, which is the most densely populated country in African continent, is still struggling to achieve self-sufficiency to feed its over 200 million people. According to reports, vegetables consumption is influenced by gender, age income education and family origin ad as well as health status (Wadle et al., 2000, Giskes et al., 2002).
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The amount of nutrient constituent in the more commonly used leafy vegetables species in Nigeria have been studied to some extent (Kola, 2004), the lesser known region and local species remain virtually neglected. Lack of information on the specific nutrients and phytochemicals in a large number of the native vegetable species with which Nigeria is richly endowed is partly responsible for their under exploitation especially in areas beyond the traditional location where they are found and consumed.
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Pharmacological importance of leafy vegetables deals with the phytochemical component of a vegetable which determines its colour and medicinal effect (Phytochemical Aspect) and the nutritional importance of leafy vegetables deals with the nutrients present in the leafy vegetables consumed such as protein content, carbohydrate content, vitamin content etc.
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Vegetables are eaten in a variety of ways as part of the main meal or as snacks. The nutrient content of leafy vegetables varies considerably, though generally they contain protein or fat and varies in the proportion of vitamin they contain such as vitamin A, vitamin K, and vitamin B, minerals and carbohydrate. Leafy vegetables are not major sources of carbohydrate compared with starchy food.
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As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
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