What Vitamins Are in Celery? K, A, C, and More

Celery delivers a surprisingly broad spread of vitamins for a vegetable that is mostly water. Vitamin K leads the pack, with a single cup of chopped raw celery supplying roughly a quarter of the daily value. Vitamins A and C are present in smaller but meaningful amounts, and several B vitamins round out the profile. Beyond the vitamins themselves, celery contains minerals, fiber, and a handful of plant compounds that have drawn research interest for their anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular effects.

Vitamin K Takes the Lead

Of all the vitamins in celery, vitamin K stands out the most. A cup of chopped raw celery (about 110 grams) provides around 30 micrograms of vitamin K, which lands in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 percent of the adequate daily intake for most adults. Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting and plays a role in bone metabolism. Because celery is often eaten raw and in quantity, whether dipped in hummus or tossed into salads, it can be a quiet but steady contributor to your vitamin K intake over the course of a day.

One thing worth knowing: if you take blood-thinning medication like warfarin, vitamin K intake matters because it directly influences how the drug works. Celery is not as dense in vitamin K as kale or spinach, so it is unlikely to cause a problem in moderate amounts, but it is worth keeping your intake consistent rather than swinging wildly from week to week.

Vitamin A From Beta-Carotene

Celery provides vitamin A mainly in the form of beta-carotene, the pigment responsible for the orange color in carrots that also shows up in green vegetables. A cup of raw celery contains roughly 450 to 500 IU of vitamin A, which works out to about 8 to 10 percent of most adults’ daily needs. Your body converts beta-carotene into active vitamin A as needed, and because it is a fat-soluble vitamin, pairing celery with a small amount of fat (a drizzle of olive oil, a smear of nut butter) helps your gut absorb it more efficiently.

The darker green outer stalks tend to carry more beta-carotene than the pale inner ones, so if you are after maximum vitamin A, reach for the outer ribs of the bunch rather than the tender heart.

Vitamin C in Modest Amounts

Celery is not a powerhouse source of vitamin C, but it does contribute. A cup of raw celery supplies about 3 milligrams, which is a small fraction of the 75 to 90 milligrams most adults need daily. You will not meet your vitamin C needs from celery alone, but it adds to the cumulative total if you eat a varied diet with other fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin C is water-soluble and heat-sensitive, so cooking celery in soups or stews reduces the amount you actually get. Raw celery preserves more of whatever vitamin C is there. This is a minor consideration given the low starting amount, but it is worth noting if you are counting on celery as part of your overall vitamin C intake rather than just a crunchy snack.

B Vitamins and Folate

Celery contains several B vitamins in small quantities, with folate being the most prominent. A cup of chopped celery provides around 36 to 40 micrograms of folate, roughly 9 to 10 percent of the 400 micrograms most adults need each day. Folate is critical for DNA synthesis and cell division, which is why it gets so much attention during pregnancy, but it matters for everyone.

Riboflavin (B2) and vitamin B6 also show up in celery, though in trace amounts that contribute only a few percent of daily needs per cup. These are not the vitamins that make celery nutritionally interesting on their own, but they do mean that celery is not empty calories. For a vegetable that clocks in at about 14 calories per cup, even small vitamin contributions add value without adding energy you do not want.

Minerals That Round Out the Picture

Vitamins get the headline, but the mineral content of celery deserves attention too. Potassium is the standout mineral, with about 260 to 290 milligrams per cup of raw celery. That is not as much as a banana, but it is a meaningful amount, especially if you eat celery regularly. Potassium helps regulate fluid balance and blood pressure, and most people fall short of the recommended 2,600 to 3,400 milligrams per day.

Celery also contains a notable amount of sodium for a whole vegetable. A cup has about 80 milligrams, which is why celery tastes slightly salty compared to, say, a cucumber. That may sound alarming if you have been told to watch your sodium, but 80 milligrams is a tiny fraction of the typical daily limit of 2,300 milligrams, and the potassium-to-sodium ratio in celery is actually favorable. Research on celery plants has shown that potassium and sodium uptake in celery are interconnected, with each element influencing how much of the other the plant absorbs from soil.

Smaller amounts of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese are present as well. None of these are in blockbuster quantities, but they contribute to the cumulative mineral intake of a meal, especially in raw preparations where nothing leaches out into cooking water.

Beyond Vitamins and Minerals

Some of the most interesting nutritional research on celery focuses not on the standard vitamins but on bioactive plant compounds. These are not vitamins in the traditional sense, but they affect how your body works in ways that go beyond basic nutrient requirements.

Apigenin is the star here. It is a flavonoid found throughout the plant kingdom, but celery is one of its richest dietary sources. A study analyzing 11 celery cultivars found that apigenin was the dominant flavonoid across all of them, with luteolin and kaempferol also present. The same work showed a strong positive correlation between total flavonoid content and antioxidant capacity in the samples tested.¹ Apigenin has attracted research interest for its potential anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anxiolytic properties, though most of that evidence comes from cell studies and animal models rather than large human trials.

The phenolic acid profile of celery also includes p-coumaric acid as the most abundant phenolic acid, along with smaller amounts of caffeic acid and ferulic acid. These compounds are part of what makes whole foods nutritionally different from isolated vitamin supplements; they come packaged alongside the vitamins and minerals in a matrix that may influence how the body processes them.

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Celery Extracts

A growing body of lab research has looked at whether celery extracts can dampen inflammation. One study compared celery leaf extract and celery stem extract in terms of their ability to suppress inflammatory signaling in immune cells. The leaf extract turned out to be about five times more effective than the stem extract at reducing nitric oxide production, a key marker of inflammation. The researchers identified apigenin and bergapten as potential biomarkers driving the anti-inflammatory response in the leaf extract.²

This is worth knowing for a practical reason: most people eat the stalks and throw away the leaves. If you are interested in maximizing the anti-inflammatory compounds in your celery, keeping and using the leaves in salads, smoothies, or as a garnish makes sense. The leaves also tend to be more concentrated in vitamins A and C than the pale inner stalks, so you get a double benefit.

One caveat: these findings come from cell culture experiments using concentrated extracts, not from people eating celery at dinner. The jump from “extract suppresses inflammation in a petri dish” to “eating celery reduces your inflammation” is a large one that has not been fully bridged by clinical trials. Still, the compounds are real, they are present in ordinary celery, and they align with broader evidence that diets rich in flavonoid-containing vegetables are associated with lower levels of chronic inflammation.

Celery and Blood Pressure

One of the most persistent folk-medicine claims about celery is that it lowers blood pressure. The research here is more developed than you might expect, though it is still mostly in the animal and mechanistic stage. A narrative review of the evidence found that celery and its extracts produce a blood-vessel-relaxing effect through multiple pathways, including nitric oxide signaling and effects on calcium and potassium channels in blood vessel walls.³ A separate study on celery seed extract confirmed that the vasodilatory effect depends in part on the endothelium, the inner lining of blood vessels, and involves the release of factors that help blood vessels relax.⁴

A compound called 3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) is often credited with the blood-pressure-lowering effect. It belongs to a class of compounds called phthalides, which give celery its distinctive aroma. The potassium content of celery probably helps too, since potassium has well-documented effects on blood pressure regulation independent of any exotic phytochemical.

None of this means celery is a substitute for blood pressure medication. But incorporating celery into a diet already rich in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains is consistent with dietary patterns that lower cardiovascular risk. If you enjoy celery and already eat it regularly, the blood pressure angle is a pleasant bonus rather than something you need to engineer your diet around.

Does Growing Method Change the Vitamin Content?

People sometimes wonder whether organic celery is meaningfully more nutritious than conventional celery. The honest answer is that the differences, where they exist, are small and inconsistent. One study comparing organic and conventional celery found that organic farming produced about 7 percent more phosphorus in the celery, but that single mineral difference hardly amounts to a nutritional revolution.⁵

What tends to matter more for the actual vitamin and mineral levels in any given bunch of celery is the variety, the soil quality, the climate, how long it sat in transit, and how it has been stored since harvest. Freshness in particular affects water-soluble vitamins like C and folate, which degrade over time. A conventionally grown celery bunch eaten the day after purchase will almost certainly have more vitamin C than an organic bunch that spent two weeks in a distribution chain before reaching your refrigerator.

If you are buying celery primarily for its nutritional content, the best advice is simple: buy it fresh, store it properly (wrapped or in a sealed container in the crisper drawer), and eat it relatively soon. These practical steps matter more than the organic-versus-conventional question for most of the vitamins in play.

The Celery Juice Trend and Nutrient Trade-Offs

Celery juice surged in popularity in the late 2010s, driven by wellness influencers claiming it could cure everything from autoimmune disease to acne. The vitamin profile of celery juice is not dramatically different from that of whole celery, with one important exception: fiber. When you juice celery, the pulp is discarded, and with it goes most of the insoluble fiber. A cup of whole celery has about 1.6 grams of fiber; a cup of celery juice has close to zero.

Fiber is not a vitamin, but it matters to the story because it affects how your body handles the sugars and other compounds in the juice. It also matters for gut health and satiety. The vitamins and minerals that are water-soluble (vitamin C, folate, potassium) mostly transfer into the juice. The fat-soluble ones (vitamin A as beta-carotene, vitamin K) partially end up in the pulp since they bind to plant cell structures. So juicing celery gives you some of the vitamins but not all of them, and it removes the fiber that makes whole celery a better food for blood sugar stability and digestive health.

The extraordinary health claims attached to celery juice have not been supported by clinical evidence. The juice contains real vitamins and real bioactive compounds, but it is not a cure for chronic disease. If you enjoy the taste, drinking it is fine, but eating the whole vegetable gives you a more complete nutritional package.

Psoralens and Photosensitivity

Celery belongs to the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, parsley, and parsnips. Members of this family produce natural chemicals called furocoumarins, or psoralens, which can cause skin reactions when combined with sunlight. This sounds alarming, but the practical risk from eating celery is very low. An analysis of three commercial celery varieties found that combined levels of four linear furocoumarins (psoralen, bergapten, xanthotoxin, and isopimpinellin) did not exceed 1.3 parts per million in any of them.⁶

A study that specifically measured blood levels of psoralens after people ate large amounts of celery root found no detectable plasma concentrations at any sampling point, and no phototoxic reaction was triggered.⁷ The researchers did note that celery consumption could theoretically increase phototoxicity risk in people undergoing PUVA therapy, a medical treatment that uses psoralens and UV light together for skin conditions. For everyone else, eating normal amounts of celery does not cause photosensitivity.

Handling celery is a slightly different story. Agricultural workers and people who handle large quantities of celery can develop a skin rash called phytophotodermatitis, where furocoumarin compounds on the skin surface react with sunlight. This is a contact issue, not a dietary one, and it is mostly relevant to people working in fields or commercial kitchens processing large volumes. If you are trimming a few stalks for your lunch, it is not something you need to worry about.

Celery Allergy and Cross-Reactivity

Celery allergy is uncommon in North America but considerably more prevalent in parts of Europe, particularly in Switzerland, France, and Germany, where celery is a mandatory allergen label on food packaging. The allergy can cause reactions ranging from mild oral itching to severe anaphylaxis. People with birch pollen allergy are at higher risk because the proteins in celery that trigger allergic reactions are structurally similar to birch pollen allergens. This cross-reactivity means someone who sneezes during birch pollen season may also react to raw celery, a pattern sometimes called oral allergy syndrome.

Cooking celery partially breaks down the offending proteins, so some people who react to raw celery can tolerate it cooked. But celery also contains heat-stable allergens, so cooking does not eliminate the risk for everyone. Celeriac (celery root) carries the same allergens as stalk celery, and celery seed and celery salt can also trigger reactions. If you have birch pollen allergy and notice tingling or swelling in your mouth after eating raw celery, it is worth mentioning to an allergist, since the severity of reactions can escalate over time in some individuals.

The vitamin content of celery is irrelevant if you cannot eat it safely. For people with confirmed celery allergy, the nutrients celery provides are easily obtained from other vegetables. Vitamin K is abundant in leafy greens like spinach and broccoli. Beta-carotene is plentiful in sweet potatoes and carrots. Folate is in legumes and dark leafy greens. No single vegetable is irreplaceable in a varied diet.