ABSTRACT

Plant leaves, fruits, stems, and roots strongly differ in their concentrations of vitamins. 1-15 Leaves of most vegetables may contain 2-6 times and leaves of spinach may even have 20 times higher ascorbic acid concentration than the stems. In fruit plants, leaves are higher in ascorbic acid content than the fruits. Plant tissues parts located on the periphery outside or more exposed positions on plants usually contain higher concentrations of several vitamins, especially ascorbic acid Vitamin concentrations in plants may also show a gradient along the longitudinal axis connecting the fruit or plant leaf to the mother plant; the differences, however, are relatively small. Plant seeds contain a considerable amount of some but not all vitamins that are believed to be necessary for the viability and the germination process. Different varieties of the same plant may also have different amounts of vitamins in their sprouts.