Nutraceuticals, antioxidant pigments, and phytochemicals in the leaves of Amaranthus spinosus and Amaranthus viridis weedy species.

Six selected weedy Amaranthus genotypes (three accessions from each species of A. viridis and A. spinosus) were evaluated in terms of nutrients, minerals, antioxidant constituents and antioxidant activity for the possibilities of weedy species as a vegetable cultivar in a randomized complete block design with three replications. As leafy vegetable, Weedy Amaranthus has remarkable protein, dietary fiber, carbohydrates, Ca, K, Mg, P, S, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Na, Mo, B, chlorophylls, β-cyanins, β-xanthins, betalains, β-carotene, vitamin C, TPC, TFC, and TAC (DPPH and ABTS⁺) compared to any cultivated species. The A. viridis genotype WAV7 and A. spinosus genotype WAS13 had the highest nutrients, pigments, vitamins, phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant. Hence, these two weedy accessions could be used as an antioxidant profile enriched cultivar with high nutritional and antioxidant activity. Pigments, β-carotene, vitamin C, phenolics, and flavonoids had strong antioxidant activity and played a vital role in the antioxidant activity of weedy Amaranthus genotypes. Weedy species are an excellent source of phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidants that have many pharmacological and medicinal effects of their traditional applications and detoxify ROS and offered huge prospects for feeding the antioxidant-deficient community to cope with the hidden hunger and attaining nutritional and antioxidant sufficiency.