The vegetable residues despised from the industry and during the food preparation might be used as an alternative nutrient source that provides poor people a richer diet. Otherwise, many vegetables are source of antinutritional factors that might influence in the digest or in the nutrients absorption. As the purpose to determining the contents of poliphenols, oxalic acid and nitrate in leaves of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, they were submitted to cooking in six different times (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 minutes). The results showed that the antinutritional factors dropped with the increase of the cooking time, being acceptable for the consumption. However, the treatments were not enought to decrease the contents of poliphenols in leaves of broccoli and cabbage considering values to the human consumption. Thus, it had better to use another methodology to decrease the level of polyphenols in the vegetables.
Antinutritional factors; leaves; boiling; Brassica spp