Air pollution has been widely known to have an influence on health of the general population.
Air pollution can result from natural causes, human activities and transboundary air pollution.
Weather and climate play crucial role in determining the pattern of air quality. In recent years,
air pollution and recurrent episodes of haze has become a major concern in Malaysia.
Surveillance data on concentrations of main air pollutants such as carbon dioxide, (CO2),
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM10)
were found to be higher during the haze days and this may have an impact on health of the
community as reflected by an increase in hospital admissions particularly the respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases.
A survey was conducted to investigate the level of consumption of ‘ulam’ in Selangor State among 252 adults (> 17 years) (male 28.6%, female 71.4%) of major ethnics (Malays-51.6%; Chinese-30.5%; Indians-17.5%) with the mean age of 42.7 ± 13.9 years. Consumption data were collected using 24 hours duplicate samples together with questionnaire on perceptions of ‘ulam.’ Results showed that ‘ulam’ was preferred by majority of the subjects (82.1%), especially amongst Malays (92.3%). A total of 52% of the subjects consumed partially or boiled ‘ulam.’ Factors that affect their preferences on ‘ulam’ were the perception of therapeutic effects of the ‘ulam’ towards health, its good taste and unique
aroma. The most consumed ‘ulam’ were cucumber (Cucumis sativus) (60.6%) ‘kacang botol’ (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) (33%), Indian pennywort (Hydrocotyle asiatica) (31.5%), lettuce (Lactuca sativa) (27.6%), ‘petai’ (Parkia speciosa) (29%) and ‘ulam raja’ (Cosmos caudatus) (21.9%). The most preferred partially or boiled ‘ulam’
were tapioca shoot (Manihot esculenta) (31.5%), ocra (Hibiscus esculentus) (12.5%) and ‘jantung pisang’ (Musa sapientum) (20.1%). There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) amongst the three different ethnic groups on the consumption of ‘ulam’ and the median for total intake per day was within the range of 30-39 g/day. Ulam is a potential
source for increasing vegetable consumption to meet recommendation by World Health Organization (WHO), which is 400 g per day.
Keywords: Adults; perception; ‘ulam;’ Selangor State