Revista de Nutrição e Ciências Alimentares
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Cabbage Inhibits Nitrite Formation In Other Vegetable Juices During Storage

Jinming Huang, Cynthia Robinson, Conner Callaway, Samuel Pope, Mackenzie Willis, Nathan Probst, Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro, Trent Roberts, Autumn Webb and Joshuah Hathcox

Although it is well known that green vegetables contain high content of nitrate, reported results regarding nitrite accumulation in fresh green vegetables are controversial. Recent studies suggest that nitrate from food has health benefits including reduce blood pressure and increase blood flow. Intake excess amount of nitrite is believed to cause increased risk of some cancers and methemoglobinemia in infants. In this study, we investigated the dynamics of nitrite and nitrate contents in spinach juice, iceberg lettuce juice, celery juice, green cabbage juice, and red cabbage juice. Nitrite concentration increased significantly in home-made spinach juice, iceberg lettuce juice, and celery juice after only two days of cold storage at 4°C; while nitrate concentrations in these vegetable juices decreased significantly with time during the storage, suggesting a conversion from nitrate to nitrite. However, no significant change in nitrite and nitrate concentrations observed in green cabbage juice and red cabbage juice during the storage. We further discovered that both green cabbage juice and red cabbage juice can completely inhibit the formation of nitrite in spinach juice, iceberg lettuce juice, and celery juice during cold storage at 4°C. Sodium tungstate, an inhibitor of nitrate reductase, was effective in inhibiting nitrite formation in celery juice during storage. The nitrite formation in these vegetable juices was much faster during storage at ambient temperature. The ability of cabbage to inhibit the formation of nitrite in other vegetable juice was also observed during storage at ambient temperature. However, if cabbage juice was boiled for five minutes prior to mixing with other vegetable juice then no inhibitory effect was observed. Cabbage had an inhibitory effect on nitrite formation when mixed with other vegetable juice. This effect was lost upon boiling, suggesting that cabbage may contain some compounds that can inhibit nitrate reductase that was decomposed by boiling.