Tartary buckwheat is widely grown and utilized in western China. In some Asian countries, dietary intake of tartary buckwheat foods is considered to be highly beneficial to human health. Many nutraceutical compounds in tartary buckwheat have been found to play critical roles in its health benefits. This review summarizes findings of recent studies in East Asia on protein, flavonoids, inositol, ...

BACKGROUND Buckwheat flour and buckwheat sprouts possess antioxidant properties, and previous studies have reported on buckwheat flour displaying an inhibitory activity for angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE). Information is lacking on the bioactivity of other parts of the buckwheat, such as the seed hulls and plant stalks. This study investigates the ACE inhibitory activity and antioxidant a...

A 24 kDa protein was isolated from tartary buckwheat seeds by using chromatography of Superdex 75 gel filtration and Resource Q ion-exchange column. SDS-PAGE and Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration were used to provide information about the molecular mass of the protein purified from tartary buckwheat. The protein was composed of 215 amino acid residues and showed strong IgE binding activity in an E...

The freshness of buckwheat flour and its unique flavor is important for the quality of buckwheat products. Several reports have shown that lipid degradation and oxidation in buckwheat flour are the main causes of measurable quality deterioration during storage. On the other hand, some flavor compounds are produced by lipid degradation and oxidation pathway. Therefore, understanding lipid degrad...

Buckwheat is an important minor crop with pharmaceutical functions due to rutin enrichment in the seed. Seeds of common buckwheat cultivars (Fagopyrum esculentum, Fes) usually have much lower rutin content than tartary buckwheat (F. tartaricum, Ft). We previously found a wild species of common buckwheat (F. esculentum ssp. ancestrale, Fea), with seeds that are high in rutin, similar to Ft. In t...

The antioxidant capacity of 80% methanolic extracts from stems, leaves, flowers and mature seeds of common and tartary buckwheat during growth period was determined against ABTS·+ (TEAC assay) and O2 radicals (PCL assay). The antioxidant capacity of aerial parts of buckwheat was highly differentiate during growth period. The highest antioxidant capacity was noted in flowers of common buckwheat ...

Recovery of gluten in buckwheat flour was evaluated as part of an effort to produce wheat-contaminated buckwheat flours that could be used as reference materials (RMs) for testing the presence of gluten in buckwheat. RMs of buckwheat containing 0, 20, 100 and 1000 ppm gluten were created and tested by ELISA. The Gluten-Check kit detected gluten accurately at all levels; RIDASCREEN and Biokits t...

A 20-year-old woman developed anaphylaxis after eating pizza on 4 different occasions in 2 restaurants. Both restaurants made their pizza dough with a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flours. A prick-to-prick test with buckwheat flour was positive. Skin prick tests and specific immunoglobulin E responses to soybean and peanut were weakly positive while the response to buckwheat was negative. We r...

Pillows are known to contain significant levels of indoor allergens and endotoxin, that are of importance to house dust mite sensitized asthmatics. Buckwheat pillows are commonly used in Korea. We studied the levels of the house dust mite allergen, Der f 1, and endotoxin on new synthetic and buckwheat pillows and their accumulation over three months. Endotoxin levels were significantly higher o...

Weed control by crops through growth suppressive root exudates is a promising alternative to herbicides. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is known for its weed suppression and redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) control is probably partly due to allelopathic root exudates. This work studies whether other weeds are also suppressed by buckwheat and if the presence of weeds is necessary to in...