The amounts of chlorophyll and nitrogen and the numbers of cells per unit area change as the green leaves of spinach plants grow and increase in size in the light. The changes in the numbers of chloroplasts per cell were measured by a new method. A 5-fold increase in the numbers of chloroplasts per cell took place in both palisade and mesophyll cells over a growing period of 10 days during which time the area of the leaves increased from 1 to 50 cm(2). Proplastids were not present in the young green leaves but electron-microscope and phase-contrast observations showed the presence of grana-containing chloroplasts, many of which appeared to be undergoing division by constriction. It is suggested that the large increase in chloroplast numbers as leaf cells grow and expand in the light is from the division of differentiated chloroplasts containing grana.

Green leafy vegetables have excellent content of vitamins as well as minerals and also contain an enormous variety of bioactive components which provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the proximate composition by standard AOAC method, antioxidant properties and DPPH free radicals scavenging activity of aqueous extract of Brassica oleracea and Spinacea oleracea. The study revealed that crude fiber, protein, iron and calciumcontent in Brassica oleracea was significantly increased by 41%, 41.6%, 8.7% and 37.23% respectively, when compared to Spinacea oleracea at p≤0.05 level. In aqueous extract of S.oleracea recorded the higher content of total phenols and total flavonoids i.e 41.2±0.18 mg GAE/g and 20.40±1.23 mg QE/g respectively as compared with B.oleracea. Although both leaves extract showed good amount of antioxidant components whereas free radical scavenging activity was higher B.oleracea leaves (IC 50-26 µg/ml) while S.oleracea had (IC 50-48µg/ml) when compared to standard ascorbic acid. The study may conclude that Brassica oleracea leaves are as good as Spinacea oleracia leaves which could be incorporated in food formulation as therapeutic agent apart from its nutritional essence which could be explored to provide affordable remedy to masses.

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