Sustainable diets and biodiversity

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  1. Conclusion and recommendations
    Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded
    that a diet rich in some indigenous African vegetables
    can be of therapeutic use for prevention and treatment
    of diseases as well as a potential source of drugs.
    Therefore, policy-makers need to promote vegetable
    consumption and conduct further scientific research
    on indigenous African vegetables to isolate chemical


compounds that can be developed into drugs.

Acknowledgements
We thank the Government of Uganda through the
Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute,
Ministry of Health for funding this research and the
vegetable market vendor in Kampala for providing
vegetable samples.

Table 2.Total flavanoids and alkaloids in selected African edible vegetables.

Vegetable species Total flavanoids (%) Total alkaloids (%)

A. hybridus 8 .7± 0 .1 2 .7±0. 3
A. cruentus 1 2.0±0. 3 3. 3 ±0.0
V. unguiculata 10. 6 ± 0. 1 1 .7± 0 .1
C. gynandra 15 .2±0. 2 4 .0±0. 3
S. aethiopicum 26 .4± 0. 6 3 .8±0.2
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