Buckwheat as a Functional Food and Its Effects on Health

Abstract

Buckwheat (BW) is a gluten-free pseudocereal that belongs to the Polygonaceae family. BW grain is a highly nutritional food component that has been shown to provide a wide range of beneficial effects. Health benefits attributed to BW include plasma cholesterol level reduction, neuroprotection, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic effects, and improvement of hypertension conditions. In addition, BW has been reported to possess prebiotic and antioxidant activities. In vitro and animal studies suggest that BW's bioactive compounds, such as D-chiro-inositol (DCI), BW proteins (BWP), and BW flavonoids (mainly rutin and quercetin) may be partially responsible for the observed effects. The purpose of this paper is to review the recent research regarding the health benefits of BW, in vitro and in vivo, focusing on the specific role of its bioactive compounds and on the mechanisms by which these effects are exerted.

Characteristics of the grain-filling process and starch accumulation of high-yield common buckwheat ‘cv. Fengtian 1’ and tartary buckwheat ‘cv. Jingqiao 2’

“…Cereal Research Communications 44, 2016 matory, and the improvement of plasma cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes (Couch et al 1946;Steadman et al 2001a;Milde et al 2004;Qin et al 2010;Choi et al 2015;Giménez-Bastida and Zieliński 2015). Therefore, buckwheat is recognized as an important raw material for functional food source in many countries, including China and Japan (Ötles and Cagindi, 2006;Bystrická et al 2011;Chen, 2012;Ahmed et al 2014).…”

Metabolite profiling of tartary buckwheat-an underutilized neutraceutical crop of Kashmir Himalaya

“…Rutin (3, 3', 4', 5, 7-pentahydroflavone-3-rhamnoglucoside -71.94%) a major flavonoid of buckwheat found in the groat extract possesses desirable physiological and biological properties such as antihypertensive, anti-carcinogenic, vasoconstrictive, antiinflammatory properties (as reviewed in Pirzadah et al, 2013;Farooq et al, 2016). Rutin is known to keep capillaries and arteries strong and flexible, besides it acts as a shield against gastric lesions, improve eyesight and hearing, protects against ultraviolet light, X-rays and oxidative stress (Gong et al, 2010;Giménez-Bastida and Zielinski, 2015), lowers plasma cholesterol and also suppresses gallstone formation (Kuntic et al, 2011). Phytol (5.22%) found in the leaf extract is having anticancer, antioxidant, antitumor, diuretic and chemopreventative properties and used in vaccine formulation (Sen, 2012;Prabhadevi et al, 2012).…”

Metabolite Fingerprinting and Antioxidant Potential of Tartary Buckwheat- an Underutilized Pseudocereal crop from Kashmir Region

“…Rutin (3, 3' , 4' , 5, 7-pentahydroflavone-3-rhamnoglucoside-71.94%) a major flavonoid of buckwheat found in the groat extract possesses desirable physiological and biological properties such as anti-hypertensive, anti-carcinogenic, vasoconstrictive, anti-inflammatory properties. 10,11 Rutin is known to keep capillaries and arteries strong and flexible, besides it acts as a shield against gastric lesions, improve eyesight and hearing, protects against UV-light, X-rays and oxidative stress, 39,40 lowers plasma cholesterol and also suppresses gallstone formation. 41 Phytol (5.22%) found in the leaf extract is having anticancer, antioxidant, antitumor, diuretic and chemopreventative properties and used in vaccine formulation.…”