Arugula: the highest-nitrate leaf measured, and what that buys

What sets arugula apart is nitrate. In a worldwide meta-analysis of published laboratory measurements, rocket held the highest nitrate plus nitrite content of any vegetable, a mean of 4,825 mg per kg with a wide interval from 3,044 to 6,606, ahead of mizuna and bok choy. Season, rain and fertiliser move that number, so one bunch is not another. The effect of nitrate itself is the best-studied part of this page. A dose-response meta-analysis of 75 randomised trials in 1,823 people found each millimole of dietary nitrate lowered systolic pressure by 0.28 mmHg acutely and 0.48 mmHg over medium-term use, but those trials ran on beetroot juice and nitrate salts, and the authors say population-specific trials are still missing. One trial put rocket in front of people. Eighteen healthy adults, mean age 28 and normal pressure, drank a rocket beverage carrying 800 mg of nitrate, and their systolic pressure fell from 122 to 116 mmHg at 150 minutes. That was a single dose of a drink built for the study, not a salad anyone ate. The 800 mg is about 160 g of leaves worth of nitrate, and more than three times the 222 mg a day EFSA calls an acceptable nitrate intake for a 60 kg adult. Who the effect reaches is narrower than the reputation. Across 19 randomised trials, inorganic nitrate lowered systolic pressure by 2.4 mmHg in healthy people and by a non-significant 0.8 mmHg in people with hypertension, with nothing on 24-hour ambulatory pressure in that group.

The numbers, per 100 g

How much is actually in it

• Across 8 USDA Foundation samples of raw baby arugula, vitamin C ranged from 49 to 172 mg per 100 g around a mean of 101 mg, calcium from 111 to 252 mg and folate from 82 to 194 micrograms. The leaf on your plate can hold half or nearly double the table value. — Arugula, baby, raw (USDA Foundation Foods, FDC 2710822), 8 analysed samples (n = 8 samples) Evidence E source
  Per 100 g: vitamin C mean 101.4 mg, range 48.6 to 172.0, spread 122%; calcium mean 203.7 mg, range 111.0 to 251.5, spread 69%; folate mean 149.2 ug, range 81.98 to 194.4, spread 75%; potassium mean 406.8 mg, range 364 to 476; iron mean 1.393 mg, range 0.925 to 1.85; magnesium mean 42.65 mg
• In a worldwide meta-analysis of published measurements, rocket had the highest nitrate plus nitrite content of any vegetable at a mean of 4,825 mg per kg (95% CI 3,044 to 6,606), ahead of mizuna at 3,500 and bok choy at 3,407 mg per kg. — Published nitrate and nitrite measurements in vegetables and fruits worldwide, pooled by vegetable and by country Evidence D source
  Rocket 4825.15 mg/kg (95% CI 3044.14 to 6606.16); mizuna 3500 (2702.48 to 4297.52); bok choy 3407.40 (2841.39 to 3973.42); vegetables overall 438.31 mg/kg nitrate vs fruits 44.02; higher with humidity over 60%, rainfall over 1500 mm, temperature over 10 C and fertiliser use

What a real portion looks like

• In US dietary survey measures one cup of raw arugula weighs only 20 g and a guideline salad amount 40 g. A cup at USDA Foundation values gives about 20 mg vitamin C and 41 mg calcium, a fifth of what the same numbers per 100 g suggest. — Lettuce, arugula, raw (FNDDS 75113080, FDC 2709791), US household measures (n = 4 portion measures) Evidence E source
  1 leaf 2 g; 1 cup 20 g; guideline amount in salad 40 g; quantity not specified 10 g. Per cup at Foundation means (card arug-c3-01): vitamin C 20 mg, calcium 41 mg, folate 30 ug, potassium 81 mg

What your body absorbs

• In 18 healthy adults, a rocket salad beverage carrying 800 mg of nitrate raised plasma nitrate to 584 umol/L, the same peak as sodium nitrate or beetroot juice. It lowered systolic pressure from 122 to 116 mmHg at 150 minutes, which sodium nitrate alone did not do. — 11 men and 7 women, mean age 28, BMI 23, normotensive, semirandomised crossover with 4 beverages each containing 800 mg (about 12.9 mmol) nitrate; measurements to 300 min (n = 18) Evidence B source
  Peak plasma nitrate: sodium nitrate 583, beetroot 597, rocket 584, spinach 584 umol/L; peak nitrite rocket 643 nmol/L; systolic BP after rocket beverage 122 to 116 mmHg at 150 min (P 0.007); diastolic lower at 150 and still at 300 min (P 0.045)

What cooking and storage change

• No study measured what cooking does to arugula itself. The USDA retention factor for leafy greens boiled in a little water and drained predicts 40% of vitamin C and 35% of folate lost while calcium stays at 95%. — Vegetables and Vegetable Products (USDA group 11), greens boiled in a little water and drained (n = USDA R6 table, one group-by-method row) Evidence E source
  USDA-RETN-R6:3004 retained after boiling greens in little water and draining: vitamin C 60%, folate 65%, calcium 95%

What it does to your health

• A 2025 dose-response meta-analysis of 75 randomised trials in 1,823 participants found each extra millimole of dietary nitrate lowered systolic pressure by 0.28 mmHg acutely and 0.48 mmHg over medium-term use, and diastolic by 0.12 mmHg. — 1,823 participants in 75 randomised controlled trials of dietary nitrate, literature to February 2024, GRADE-assessed (n = 1823) Evidence A source
  Per mmol nitrate: plasma nitrate +32.7 umol/L acute, +19.6 chronic; SBP -0.28 mmHg acute (95% CI -0.40 to -0.17), -0.24 short-term, -0.48 medium-term (95% CI -0.71 to -0.25); DBP -0.12 mmHg (95% CI -0.21 to -0.03); pulse wave velocity -0.07 m/s; flow-mediated dilation +0.30%

Safety, limits and interactions

• A 2022 Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak in Sweden with 109 cases across 20 of 21 regions was traced to domestically grown, pre-washed and pre-packed rocket salad, with cases 4.9 times more likely to have eaten rocket than controls. — 109 outbreak cases in Sweden, symptom onset 17 September to 24 November 2022, median age 52, 62% female; case-control study and trace-back (n = 109) Evidence C source
  Rocket salad aOR 4.9 (95% CI 2.4 to 10, p under 0.001); bagged mixed salad aOR 4.0 (95% CI 1.9 to 8.1)

What people believe that the data does not support

• EFSA set the acceptable daily intake of nitrate at 3.7 mg per kg body weight, about 222 mg a day for a 60 kg adult, and noted that more than 47 g of rucola at its median nitrate content would exceed it. It still concluded that the benefits of eating vegetables prevail over nitrate risks. — EU consumers; risk assessment of nitrate in vegetables by the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain Evidence E source
  ADI 3.7 mg/kg bw/day (222 mg/day at 60 kg); rucola median content means more than 47 g exceeds the ADI; a high of 4,800 mg/kg reported in rucola; overall exposure from vegetables unlikely to cause appreciable health risk

Who this works differently for

• Across 19 randomised trials, inorganic nitrate lowered systolic pressure by 2.4 mmHg in healthy people but by a non-significant 0.8 mmHg in people with hypertension, with no effect on 24-hour ambulatory pressure in the hypertensive group. — Adults in 19 randomised controlled trials of inorganic nitrate (dietary or salt), literature to December 2021, healthy and hypertensive subgroups (n = 19 RCTs) Evidence A source
  Healthy: SBP -2.42 mmHg (95% CI -4.28 to -0.57, P 0.01), DBP -0.58 (ns). Hypertensive: SBP -0.82 mmHg (95% CI -2.53 to 0.90, P 0.35), DBP -0.03, 24-h ambulatory SBP -0.22 and DBP -0.33 (ns)
• In 26 placebo-controlled trials with 90 to 800 mg of nitrate a day, taking nitrate before exercise blunted the rise in systolic pressure during exercise by 2.8 mmHg and diastolic by 2.4 mmHg, and left systolic pressure 3.5 mmHg lower after exercise. — Adults 18 and over in 26 masked randomised placebo-controlled trials of dietary nitrate from vegetables or salts, at least 50 mg/day (n = 26 RCTs) Evidence A source
  During exercise: SBP -2.81 mmHg (95% CI -5.20 to -0.41, p 0.02), DBP -2.41 mmHg (95% CI -4.02 to -0.79, p 0.003); post-exercise SBP -3.53 mmHg (p 0.001), DBP no difference (p 0.31); moderated by baseline SBP, exercise type, duration and dose

The bottom line

As ordinary food, arugula is unstable on paper. Across 8 analysed samples of raw baby arugula in the USDA Foundation database, vitamin C ran from 49 to 172 mg per 100 g around a mean of 101 mg, calcium from 111 to 252 mg, folate from 82 to 194 micrograms. The older USDA entry for raw arugula lists 15 mg of vitamin C, about seven times less than the baby-leaf mean, and the database does not explain the gap. Portions shrink all of it. A cup of raw leaves weighs 20 g in US survey measures and a salad helping 40 g, so a cup works out at roughly 20 mg vitamin C and 41 mg calcium, recalculated from the 100 g figures rather than measured on the cup. Nobody has measured what cooking does to arugula. The USDA group factor for greens boiled in a little water and drained, dated 1975 and never tested on this plant, predicts 40 percent of the vitamin C and 35 percent of the folate lost, with calcium at 95 percent. If you exercise, the nitrate literature has one more finding for you: in 26 placebo-controlled trials using 90 to 800 mg of nitrate a day, none of them with rocket, the rise in systolic pressure during exercise was 2.8 mmHg smaller. Two cautions are real here, and both come from the leaf rather than the nitrate theory. A 2022 Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak in Sweden, 109 cases across 20 of 21 regions, was traced to domestically grown pre-washed and pre-packed rocket, with cases 4.9 times more likely than controls to have eaten it. Investigators never cultured the organism from the salad and named the source by trace-back, so read it as a reason not to treat pre-washed as sterile. Second, EFSA sets the acceptable daily intake of nitrate at 3.7 mg per kg of body weight, about 222 mg a day for a 60 kg adult, and noted that more than 47 g of rucola at its median nitrate content crosses that line. The same opinion concludes that the benefits of eating vegetables prevail over the nitrate risk. That 47 g is close to the 40 g US survey measures call a guideline salad helping, and the limit is set per kilogram of body weight, so it is lower for a smaller adult and lower again for a child. We found no usable study of arugula in pregnancy, in children, or alongside any medicine, so this page has nothing to tell you there.

Sources

1. arug-c3-01 · reference dataset
   Arugula, baby, raw | Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid 101.4 MG, range 48.6-172.0 (median 90.45), 8 samples, spread 122% | Calcium, Ca 203.7 MG, range 111.0-251.5 (median 204.5), 8 samples, spread 69% | Folate, total 149.2 UG, range 81.98-194.4 (median 151.3), 8 samples, spread 75% | Potassium, K 406.8 MG, range 364.0-476.0 (median 399.3), 8 samples, spread 28%
   USDA FoodData Central, Foundation Foods, release 2026-04-30 · checked 2026-09-23
2. arug-c3-04 · meta-analysis of food composition measurements
   The highest concentration (mean and 95%CI) of nitrate/nitrite was determined in Rocket (4825.15; 3044.14-6606.16), Mizuna (3500; 2702.48-4297.52), and Bok choy (3407.40; 2841.39-3973.42) in vegetable group
   Ecotoxicol Environ Saf, 2023 · checked 2026-09-23
3. arug-c3-02 · reference dataset
   Lettuce, arugula, raw · FNDDS 75113080 · fdc_id 2709791 | 1 leaf 2 g | 1 cup 20 g | Guideline amount in salad 40 g | Quantity not specified 10 g
   USDA FNDDS 2021-2023 · checked 2026-09-23
4. arug-c3-05 · RCT crossover
   ingested 4 different beverages, each containing 800 mg (∼12.9 mmol) nitrate: sodium nitrate (NaNO3), concentrated beetroot juice, a rocket salad beverage, and a spinach beverage...When compared with baseline, systolic blood pressure declined 150 min after ingestion of beetroot juice (from 118 ± 2 to 113 ± 2 mm Hg; P < 0.001) and rocket salad beverage (from 122 ± 3 to 116 ± 2 mm Hg; P = 0.007)
   J Nutr, 2016 · checked 2026-09-23
5. arug-c3-03 · reference dataset
   USDA-RETN-R6:3004 VEG,GREENS,BOILD,LITTLE WATER DRAIN | vitamin_c_mg 60% | folate_total_ug 65% | calcium_mg 95%
   USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors, Release 6 (2007) · checked 2026-09-23
6. arug-c3-07 · meta-analysis of RCTs
   Our analysis of 75 RCTs involving 1823 participants revealed that per each millimole (mmol) increase in the administered NO3 dose, both acute (WMD: 32.7µmol/L; 95%CI: 26.1, 39.4) and chronic-term (WMD: 19.6µmol/L; 95%CI: 9.95, 29.3) plasma NO3 levels increased. Per each mmol increase in NO3 intake, a reduction in systolic BP levels was observed in the acute (WMD: -0.28mmHg; 95%CI: -0.40, -0.17), short-term (WMD: -0.24mmHg; 95%CI: -0.40, -0.07), and medium-term (WMD: -0.48mmHg; 95%CI: -0.71, -0.25) periods.
   Nutr J, 2025 · checked 2026-09-23
7. arug-c3-09 · case-control (outbreak investigation)
   Overall, 109 cases with symptom onset between 17 September and 24 November 2022 were reported from 20 of 21 Swedish regions...A case-control study found cases to be associated with consumption of rocket salad (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 4.9; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.4-10, p value < 0.001) and bagged mixed salad (aOR = 4.0; 95% CI: 1.9-8.1, p value < 0.001).
   Euro Surveill, 2024 · checked 2026-09-23
8. arug-c3-08 · EFSA opinion
   The Panel also noted that consumption of more than 47 g of rucola at the median nitrate concentration would lead to an excursion above the ADI...Overall, the estimated exposures to nitrate from vegetables are unlikely to result in appreciable health risks, therefore the recognised beneficial effects of consumption of vegetables prevail.
   EFSA, Nitrate in vegetables, Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food chain, EFSA Journal 2008 · checked 2026-09-23
9. arug-c3-06 · meta-analysis of RCTs
   In the healthy population, inorganic nitrate lowered systolic blood pressure (-2.42 mmHg, 95% confidence intervals (CI) [-4.28, -0.57]; P = 0.01) but not diastolic blood pressure (-0.58 mmHg, 95% CI [-1.84, 0.68]; P = 0.36) or mean arterial pressure (-1.01 mmHg, 95% CI [-3.55, 1.54]; P = 0.44). However, in the hypertensive population, inorganic nitrates did not lower systolic blood pressure (-0.82 mmHg, 95% CI [-2.53, 0.90]; P = 0.35)
   Food Funct, 2023 · checked 2026-09-23
10. arug-c3-10 · meta-analysis of RCTs
    NO3- daily dosages ranged from 90 to 800 mg/day. Throughout exercise, SBP had smaller increases in the NO3- group (-2.81 mmHg (95%CI: -5.20 to -0.41), p=0.02. DBP demonstrated lower values in the NO3- group (-2.41 mmHg (95%CI: -4.02 to -0.79), p=0.003.
    Free Radic Biol Med, 2024 · checked 2026-09-23