Mashitoa, Florence M.Manhivi, VimbainasheSlabber, Retha M.Shai, Jerry L.Sivakumar, Dharini2024-10-242024-10-242021-06-071226-7708 (P)2092-6456 (E)https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-021-00916-whttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14519/899Pumpkin leaves (Cucurbita moschata) were subjected to different household cooking methods (boiling, microwaving, steaming, and stir-frying) to evaluate their effect on antinutrients, phenolic compounds, antioxidant properties (ABTS, and DPPH) and in vitro a-glucosidase activity. All cooking methods studied significantly reduced the antinutrients and antioxidant activities, whilst phenolic compounds p-coumaric and ferulic acids significantly increased. The cooking methods reduced the oxalates by more than 50%, tannins by 47% and phytates by 79.22%. Steaming and boiling resulted in highest concentrations of p-coumaric (195.40 mg kg-1) and ferulic acids (103.90 mg kg-1) compared to other methods. Overall, boiled leaves retained the highest total phenolic compounds, whilst steamed leaves retained the highest antioxidant capacity. Raw pumpkin leaf extracts showed higher in vitro a-glucosidase inhibitory effects than the cooked leaves. Thus, cooking affected the inhibitory effect of in vitro a-glucosidase activity.793–800 PagesenAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/OxalatesIndigenous leafy vegetablesOxalatesA-glucosidase activityAntioxidant capacityArticle