Comparative investigation of the level of vitamin C in wild edible plants consumed at North Shoa Zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia

Communities in Ethiopia struggle with vitamin malnutrition, despite the abundance of wild edible plant species. This study was intended to determine the level of vitamin C in selected wild edible plants that are commonly consumed. Wild edible plants were collected from Saka Sole during the ripening season in April for analysis. Ascorbic acid was first oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, which reacted with specific reagents to produce a colored compound. The compound was then extracted, and its concentration determined using UV-VIS spectrophotometry. The content of vitamin C ranged from 0.722 mg/g in the leave of Carissa spinarum L.) to 1.612 mg/g in the leave of Thymus schimperi Ronniger), and 0.215 mg/g in the fruit of Opuntia ficus indica (L) Mill) to 1.274 mg/g in the fruit of Syzyguim guineense (Wild.) DC.). Vitamin C content varied significantly among the ten wild edible plants tested, with all pairwise differences confirmed by Tukey’s HSD test (adj-p < 0.001, 95% CI ≠ 0). The precision of the method was in the range of % RSD 0.06 to 2.85%. A percentage recovery (%R) ranging from 94.28 ± 1.56 to 102.85 ± 1.52, and correlation coefficient (R2) values of 0.9970 were obtained. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method were 0.05 mg/g and 0.15 mg/g, respectively. Thus, the vitamin C contents of most of the wild edible plants were higher than the commonly consumed and domesticated plants, which demands considerable attention to wild edible plants to supplement a shortage of vitamin C.