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Buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum )

Buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum )

  

Common Names:
  • in English: buckwheat, common buckwheat
  • in Japan: soba (= buckwheat noodles)
  • in Tibetan: rgya-bra
  • in China: qiao mai, chiao mai, wu mai, hua chiao
  • in India: doron, kaadu godhi, kaiyuk, kali-indrayan, kathu, kotu, kuttu, ogal, oggal, ogla, olgo, phapar, phaphra, suel, tyat

Scientific Names (Synonyms)

  • Fagopyrum cereale Raf.
  • Fagopyrum dryandrii Fenzl
  • Fagopyrum emarginatum Moench
  • Fagopyrum emarginatum (Roth) Meisn.
  • Fagopyrum emarginatum var. kunawarense Meisn.
  • Fagopyrum sarracenicum Dumort.
  • Fagopyrum esculentum subsp. ancestralis Ohnishi
  • Polygonum fagopyrum L.
  • Polygonum emarginatum Roth

Floral Description
Flora of China

  • Herbs annual.
  • Stems green or red when mature, erect, 30-90 cm tall, branched above, glabrous or papillate on one side.
  • Petiole 1.5-5 cm; leaf blade triangular, 2.5-7 × 2-5 cm, both surfaces papillate along veins, base cordate or nearly truncate, apex acuminate;
  • ocrea caducous, ca. 5 mm, membranous, oblique, not ciliate.
  • Inflorescence axillary or terminal, racemose or corymbose; peduncles 2-4 cm, papillate along one side; bracts green, ovate, 2.5-3 mm, margin membranous, each 3- or 5-flowered.
  • Pedicels longer than bracts, not articulate.
  • Perianth pink or white; tepals elliptic, 3-4 mm.
  • Anthers pinkish. Styles heterostylous.

Flora of North America

  • Stems ascending or erect, green or striped with pink or red, branched, (7-)15-90 cm.
  • Leaves: ocrea brownish hyaline, loose, funnelform, 2-8 mm, margins truncate, eciliate, glabrous or puberulent proximally; petiole 1.5-6(-9) cm, usually puberulent adaxially; blade palmately veined with 7-9 primary basal veins, hastate-triangular, sagittate-triangular, or cordate, 2.5-8 × 2-8 cm, base truncate or cordate to sagittate, margins ciliolate, apex acute to acuminate.
  • Inflorescences terminal and axillary, paniclelike, 1-4 cm, usually crowded at stem apices; peduncle 0.5-4 cm, puberulent in lines.
  • Pedicels ascending or recurved, 2.5-4 mm.
  • Flowers chasmogamous, heterostylous [homostylous]; perianths creamy white to pale pink; tepals elliptic to obovate, (2.5-)3-5 mm, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute; stamens ca. 1/ 2 as long as or slightly longer than perianth; styles 1.5-2 mm or 0.5-1 mm; stigmas purplish

Flora of Pakistan

  • Annual, up to 1 m tall herb, glabrous or young parts rarely minutely papillose.
  • Stem ribbed, reddish.
  • Leaves petiolate, petiole 0.5-2 cm long, grooved lower leaves with long petiole, upper ones subsessile; lamina triangular or sagittate, cordate, basal lobes rounded to acuminate, 1.5-10 x 1-8 cm.
  • Ochrea 2-3 (-5) mm long, hyaline, pubescent near the base.
  • Inflorescence axillary and terminal, pedunculate, many-flowerd corymbose cyme.
  • Flowers pink or red, pedicelled, c. 1 mm across.
  • Perianth segments 5-partite, ovate or oblong-ovate c. 3 x 2 mm broad.
  • Stames 8, unequal, alternating with glands, c. 1.5 mm long. Ovary 3-angled; styles 3, as long as ovary.
  • Nuts deeply 3-angled, angles acute, brown, smooth, narrowed at both the ends, 4-8 x 2.5-5 mm broad.

Pharmacological Activities:

  • This plant is considered to be a primary photosensitize;
  • skin rash following ingestion and exposure to sunlight, in susceptible individuals.
  • Ingesting entire plants, dried or fresh, has caused photosensitization in animals with exposed or light-colored skin including cattle, goats, sheep, swine, and turkeys.
  • Exposure to the sun is necessary. Humans can be sensitized to dust from buckwheat flour after long exposure.
  • Asthma is the usual response, photosensitization has not occurred in humans. Fagopyrin, probably a derivative of naphthodianthrone, is closely related to hypericin, which is found in St. John’s-wort, Hypericum perforatum.
  • Plant antihemorrhagic, a cure for capillary fragility of the heart.
  • Juice of plant useful in urinary disorders. Leaves paste as an ointment for headache; leaf decoction taken for gastrointestinal problems.
  • Dried leaf paste taken against constipation.
  • Leaf extract of Mentha longifolia and Fagopyrum esculentum taken orally for cold and cough.
  • Leaves fried with ghee eaten as febrifuge.
  • Fresh leaves decoction or infusion taken in stomach ailments.
  • Root decoction in rheumatic pains,lung diseases and typhoid; root juice in urinary disorders.

Chemcials:

  • Brassinolide
  • Castasterone
  • (-)-Epicatechin
  • Orientin
  • Fagomine
  • Rutin
  • 5-O-Methyleriodictyol 7-glucosyl-(1->4)-galactoside
  • Aromadendrin 3-galactoside
  • (2R,3R)-Taxifolin 3-xyloside
  • Procyanidin B5
  • Procyanidin B2
  • Epicatechin-(4beta->8)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate
 

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