Oxalate in Indian Foods: Palak, Bathua, Til, Almond

By NYUS Inc. · October 2026

हिंदी में पढ़ें: पालक, बथुआ, तिल, बादाम में ऑक्सलेट कितना होता है (IFCT 2017 के आँकड़ों के साथ)

Oxalate is a plant compound that the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017, ICMR-NIN) measure in Table 9, "Organic acids", as total, soluble and insoluble oxalate in milligrams (mg) per 100 g of edible portion. This page only reports those printed values for common Indian foods: it makes no claim about what oxalate does, and it gives no limit or dose. To keep every figure solid, it uses only rows IFCT averaged over 2 or more regions, and says how many regions each row has.

The short answer

Total oxalate runs from 0.72 mg per 100 g in watermelon and 1.41 mg in red gram (toor) dal to 2472 mg in black cardamom and 2156 mg in black sesame seeds. Among everyday foods, spinach (palak) has 592 mg, bathua 1077 mg (a thin 2-region row), white sesame (til) 2004 mg, almonds 344 mg, cashews 189 mg, brown rajmah 43.41 mg, atta 52.38 mg, ragi 39.58 mg and potato 12.24 mg. Green gram (moong) dal has 2.46 mg and tomato 2.89 mg.

How the rows were chosen

IFCT 2017 Table 9 has 314 food rows. 258 of them are averages of 2 or more regions, and 246 of those have a total oxalate value. This page shows 77 of them, from 2 to 6 regions: the 20 highest rows, then common greens, pulses and grains, nuts and seeds, vegetables, roots and fruits. 2 of the shown rows come from only 2 regions (C008, C006), so treat those as thinner evidence. IFCT prints the soluble and insoluble columns separately, and they do not always add up to the total; we show the printed numbers and left out rows where they differ by more than 10%. A dash means IFCT leaves the cell blank (below the detectable limit). IFCT 2017 says all its data except poultry and egg is for raw food (PDF p. 27). The table sits on PDF pages 364 to 379 (printed pages 315 to 330).

The 20 highest rows, mg per 100 g

IFCT 2017, Table 9, oxalate in mg per 100 g edible portion, sorted from the most total oxalate to the least. Many of the top rows are spices and seeds that are eaten in small amounts.

Black cardamom (2472 mg) and sesame seeds (2156 mg for black, 2004 mg for white) lead. Spinach is the last of these 20 rows at 592 mg. In sesame, 1931 of the 2004 mg in the white seed row sits in the insoluble column, against 73.51 mg soluble.

Leafy greens, mg per 100 g

The same table for twelve common greens.

Bathua has the most (1077 mg, from only 2 regions), then amaranth (chaulai, 779 mg), arbi leaves (701 mg), spinach (592 mg) and lettuce (364 mg). Fenugreek leaves have 34.29 mg. Green cabbage (2.88 mg) and mustard leaves (1.69 mg) have the least of these twelve.

Pulses, millets and grains, mg per 100 g

Raw dry pulses and grains, sorted the same way.

Whole horse gram (181 mg) and brown soybean (122 mg) are the highest pulse rows, and red gram (toor) dal (1.41 mg) the lowest. Among grains, atta has 52.38 mg, ragi 39.58 mg and rice 1.92 mg; amaranth seed (rajgira) has 209 mg.

Nuts and seeds, mg per 100 g

Raw nuts and seeds, sorted the same way.

Sesame has 2004 to 2156 mg, almonds 344 mg, cashews 189 mg, groundnuts 60.98 mg and walnuts 37.03 mg. Most of the sesame oxalate is in the insoluble column, while cashews have 149 mg soluble and 39.52 mg insoluble.

Vegetables, roots and fruits, mg per 100 g

Common vegetables, roots and fruits, sorted the same way.

The highest of these rows are pomegranate (253 mg), garlic, big clove (159 mg), drumstick (123 mg), bhindi (83.87 mg) and beetroot (71.37 mg), and the lowest are watermelon (0.72 mg), tomato (2.89 mg) and banana (3.24 mg). Potato has 12.24 mg, sweet potato 14.14 mg and arbi 48.73 mg.

What this table does not say

Table 9 reports how much oxalate the raw food contained, in the samples IFCT tested. It does not say how much the body takes up, how cooking, soaking or sprouting changes the figure, or how much of a food a person eats, and this page gives no limit, target or advice. Cooked, fried and mixed dishes have no row here.

Three common mistakes

1. Comparing foods by 100 g only. A pinch of spice and a bowl of greens are very different amounts, so the per 100 g figures are not what a meal contains.
2. Using raw figures for cooked food. Table 9 has no cooked rows, and cooking can change both the weight and the amount.
3. Treating a thin row as settled. Bathua is the highest green on this page, but its row comes from only 2 regions.

Log your food in NYUS

NYUS is an AI diet and workout coach with 8,900+ foods with calories and macros. You can search or scan to log a meal and weigh food by the gram. NYUS does not track oxalate.

Frequently asked questions

Sources (read 26 October 2026)

• Longvah T. et al., Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT 2017), ICMR-NIN, Table 9 "Organic acids", oxalate total, soluble and insoluble, mg per 100 g edible portion, rows with 2 or more regions: A002, A003, A005, A010, A015, A019, B001, B002, B003, B004, B010, B011, B012, B013, B017, B019, B021, B024, C002, C004, C005, C006, C008, C009, C015, C018, C019, C020, C025, C026, C030, C031, C033, D004, D007, D031, D036, D043, D046, D056, D061, D066, D075, E001, E012, E036, E047, E049, E055, E065, F001, F002, F004, F006, F014, G011, G017, G020, G021, G023, G024, G025, G029, G032, G033, H001, H005, H009, H010, H011, H012, H014, H015, H016, H018, H020, H021 on PDF pp. 364 to 379. The statement that all data except poultry and egg is for raw food: p. 27.
• The 77 rows are exactly as printed in IFCT; we only grouped and sorted them.