Fagopyrum esculentum Health Dictionary

Moench.

Family: Polygonaceae.

Habitat: Native to Central Asia; now grown as minor grain-crop in hilly regions of North India and the Nilgiris.

English: Buckwheat.

Ayurvedic: Kotu.

Folk: Kutu, Phaapar.

Action: Used for treating fragile capillaries, chilbains and for strengthening varicose veins. Used at a supporting herb for treating high blood pressure. Rutin is obtained from fresh or dried leaves and flowers. (Rutin is used in a variety of haemorrhagic conditions.)

The seed are commonly used in colic, choleraic diarrhoea and abdominal obstructions. Root decoction is used in rheumatic pains, lung diseases and typhoid; juice in urinary disorders. In China, used in pulmonary sepsis.

The plant is used as a venous and capillary tonic, and for alleviating venous stasis and vericose veins.

It is a potential source of rutin (yield 3-5%). The leaves and blossoms contain most of the rutin (80-90%).

Quercetin caused significant decrease in ulcer index in acute gastric ulcer with respect to control group in rats. Quercetin, rutin or kaempferol inhibited, in dose-dependent manner, gastric damage produced by acidified- ethanol in rats.

The plant also gave hyperoside and anthracene derivatives.

Buckwheat is a good source of lysine and other amino acids. The flour is reported to repress exogenous hy- percholesterolemia and promotes accumulation of triglyceride in the liver of rats.

Seed oil exhibits antimicrobial activity against Bacillus anthrasis, E.coli and Salmonella paratyphi.

Whole plant, dried or green, can cause photosensitization.