Influence of domestic cooking methods on proximate and phytochemical composition of garlic

Nutrient content of garlic changed by different ways of cooking such as boiling, steaming and frying. This study is conducted to determine the proximate composition and phytochemical content of two varieties of garlic after cooking procedures and finding out the best way of cooking. Two different varieties (Big and Small clove) of garlic were purchased from local market of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. One portion was kept as raw as control and others were subjected to three different cooking methods. Nutrient such as moisture, starch, protein, fat, fibre, total polyphenols and total flavanoids were analyzed in cooked (steamed, boiled, fried) garlic by adopting standardized procedures to find out the best method of cooking. Fresh garlic contained 65.23±0.15 to 67.23±0.49% of moisture, 106.55±0.36 to 142.63±0.59g of starch, 7.14±0.06 to 7.30±0.45 % of protein, 0.15±0.06 to 0.30±0.02 % of fat, 0.82±0.02 to 1.46±0.35 % of fibre, 45.55±0.21to 49.59±0.39mg of total polyphenols and 3.51±0.02 to 4.27±0.02mg of total flavonoids. After cooking, with respect to moisture and polyphenols, nutrients were significantly reduced in all the treatments and other nutrients were nonsignificantly reduced in steaming method and significantly reduced in boiling and frying method. Studies shown that, steaming is the best method of cooking for nutrient retention when compared to other two methods.