buckwheat

 

common name for certain members of the Polygonaceae, a family of herbs and shrubs found chiefly in north temperate areas and having a characteristic pungent juice containing oxalic acid. Species native to the United States are most common in the West. The largest genus of the family, Polygonum (or Persicaria), contains the knotweeds and the smartweeds, found in many parts of the world. The common smartweed (P. hydropiper) is an annual sometimes called water pepper for its acrid quality. Several species of the dock genus (Rumex) are sorrels (the common name used also for the similarly acrid but unrelated oxalis). The garden, or green, sorrel (R. acetosa) and the sheep, red, or field sorrel (R. acetosella) have long been used in Europe for salads and greens. Among the plants used as potherbs are the patience or spinach dock (R. patientia) and the tanner's dock (R. hymenosepalus); the latter is the source of canaigre, a substance used for tanning. Economically the important members of the family are of the rhubarb genus (Rheum) and the buckwheat genus (Fagopyrum), both native to Asia. Most of the rhubarb cultivated for the edible thick, fleshy leafstalks is R. rhaponticum, called also pieplant and wine plant. Medicinal rhubarb is obtained from this and other species of the genus. The cultivated buckwheat (F. esculentum) has been grown in the Old World since the Middle Ages as a honey plant and for its characteristic three-cornered grain, which is utilized for poultry and stock feed. Buckwheat flour is used in the United States, Japan, and eastern Europe; the plant is sown as a cover crop and is a food staple. The genus Eriogonum includes the wild, or yellow, buckwheat (E. alleni), restricted to the Appalachian shale barrens, and many Western species, e.g., the desert trumpet (E. inflatum), a desert flower of arid plains and plateaus. The interesting genus Koenigia has only one species, but it is found in the Arctic, in the Himalayas, and in Tierra del Fuego. Buckwheat is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Polygonales, family Polygonaceae.

Common Buckwheat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Caryophyllales Family: Polygonaceae Genus: Fagopyrum Species: F. esculentum
Binomial name
Fagopyrum esculentum Moench

Buckwheat refers to plants in two genera of the family Polygonaceae, the Eurasian genus Fagopyrum, and the North American genus Eriogonum. The crop plant, common buckwheat, is Fagopyrum esculentum. Tartary buckwheat (F. tataricum Gaertn.) or "bitter buckwheat" is also used as a crop, but it is much less common. Despite the common name and the grain-like use of the crop, buckwheats are not grasses and are not related to wheat. The agricultural weed known as Wild Buckwheat (Fallopia convolvulus) is in the same family, but not closely related to the crop species. Within Fagopyrum, the cultivated species are in the cymosum group, with F. cymosum L. (perennial buckwheat), F. giganteum and F. homotropicum.^[1] The wild ancestor of common buckwheat is F. esculentum ssp.ancestrale. F. homotropicum is interfertile with F. esculentum and the wild forms have a common distribution, in Yunnan. The wild ancestor of tartary buckwheat is "F. tataricum ssp. potanini.^[2]

Etymology

The name "buckwheat" or "beech wheat" comes from its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat. The etymology of the word is explained as partial translation of Middle Dutch boecweite : boek, beech; see PIE bhago- + weite, wheat.

Cultivation

Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BC, and from there spread to Europe and to Central Asia and Tibet. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China.^[3] Buckwheat is documented in Europe in the Balkans by at least the Middle Neolithic (circa 4000 BC) and the oldest known remains in China so far date to circa 2600 BC, and buckwheat pollen has been found in Japan from as early as 4000 BC. It is the world's highest elevation domesticate, being cultivated in Yunnan on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau or on the Plateau itself. Buckwheat was one of the earliest crops introduced by Europeans to North America. Dispersal around the globe was complete by 2006, when a variety developed in Canada was widely planted in China.

Buckwheat is a short season crop that does well on low-fertility or acidic soils, but the soil must be well drained. Too much fertilizer, especially nitrogen, will reduce yields. In hot climates, it can only be grown by sowing late in the season, so that it will bloom in cooler weather. The presence of pollinators greatly increases the yield. The nectar from buckwheat flower makes a dark colored honey. Buckwheat is sometimes used as a green manure, as a plant for erosion control, or as wildlife cover and feed.

Common buckwheat is by far the most important buckwheat species, economically, accounting for over 90% of the world's buckwheat production. A century ago, Russia was the world leader in buckwheat production.^[4] Growing areas in the Russian Empire were estimated at 2,600,000 hectares, followed by those of France (355,000 hectares).^[5] In 1970 the Soviet Union grew an estimated 4.5 million acres (18,000 km²) of buckwheat, but has since been overtaken by China. Japan, Poland, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia also grow significant quantities of buckwheat.

In the northeastern United States, buckwheat was a common crop in the 18th and 19th centuries. Cultivation declined sharply in the 20th century due the use of nitrogen fertilizer, to which maize and wheat respond strongly. Over a million acres (4,000 km²) were harvested in the United States in 1918. By 1954 that had declined to 150,000 acres (600 km²), and by 1964, the last year that production statistics were gathered, only 50,000 acres (200 km²) were grown.

Use

The fruit is an achene, similar to sunflower seed, with a single seed inside a hard outer hull. The starchy endosperm is white and makes up most or all of buckwheat flour. The seed coat is green or tan, which darkens buckwheat flour. The hull is dark brown or black, and some may be included in buckwheat flour as dark specks. The dark flour is known (exaggeratedly) as "blé noir" ("black wheat") in French, along with the name sarrasin ("saracen").

Buckwheat noodles are the major use in Japan (soba) and Korea (memil guksu). Soba noodles are the subject of deep cultural importance in Japan. The difficulty of making noodles from flour that has no gluten has resulted in a traditional art developed around their hand manufacture.

Buckwheat groats are commonly used in western Asia and eastern Europe. The porridge was common, and is often considered the distinctive peasant dish. It is made from roasted groats that are cooked with broth to a texture similar to rice or bulgur. The dish was brought to America by Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants who called it "kasha" and used it mixed with pasta or as a filling for knishes and blins, and hence buckwheat groats are most commonly called kasha in America. Groats were the most widely used form of buckwheat worldwide during the 20th century, with consumption primarily in Russia, Ukraine and Poland.

Buckwheat pancakes, sometimes raised with yeast, are eaten in several countries. They are known as buckwheat blinis in Russia, galettes in France (where they are especially associated with Brittany), ployes in Acadia and boûketes (that is, named the same as the plant they are made of) in Wallonia. Similar pancakes were a common food in American pioneer days. They are light and foamy. The buckwheat flour gives them an earthy, mildly mushroom-like taste. In Ukraine, yeast rolls called hrechanyky are made from buckwheat.

Farina made from groats are used for breakfast food, porridge, and thickening materials in soups, gravies, and dressings. In Korea, buckwheat starch is used to make a jelly called memilmuk. It is also used with wheat, maize or rice in bread and pasta products.

Buckwheat contains no gluten, and can thus be eaten by people with coeliac disease or gluten allergies. Many bread-like preparations have been developed.

Besides the seeds, from which buckwheat flour is produced, buckwheat is also a good honey plant, producing a dark, strong monofloral honey.

Buckwheat greens are not palatable to humans. If eaten in sufficient quantities, the greens, or their juice, can induce sensitization of the skin to sunlight known as fagopyrism.^[6][7] Fair skinned people are particularly susceptible, as are light pigmented livestock. Enthusiasts of sprouting, however, eat the very young buckwheat sprouts (four to five days of growth) for their subtle, nutty flavour and high nutritional value.

Medicinal uses

Buckwheat contains rutin, a medicinal chemical that strengthens capillary walls, reducing hemorrhaging in people with high blood pressure and increasing microcirculation in people with chronic venous insufficiency.^[8] Dried buckwheat leaves for tea were manufactured in Europe under the brand name "Fagorutin."

Buckwheat contains d-chiro-inositol, the cofactor missing in Type II diabetes. It is being studied for use in treating this disease. ^[9]

A buckwheat protein has been found to bind cholesterol tightly. It is being studied for reducing plasma cholesterol in people with an excess of this compound.^[10]

Upholstery filling

Buckwheat hulls are used as filling for a variety of upholstered goods, including pillows and zafu. The hulls are durable and do not conduct or reflect heat as much as synthetic fills. They are sometimes marketed as an alternative natural fill to feathers for those with allergies.

Medical studies to measure the health effects of buckwheat hull pillows have been performed.^[11][12]

Buckwheat and beer

In recent years, buckwheat has been used as a substitute for other grain in gluten free beer. Buckwheat is used in the same way as barley to produce a "malt" that can form the basis of a mash that will brew a beer without gliadin or hordein (together "gluten") and therefore can be suitable for coeliacs or others sensitive to certain glycoproteins.^[13]

Festivals

The buckwheat plant is celebrated in Kingwood, West Virginia at their Buckwheat Festival where people can participate in swine, cow, and sheep judging contests, vegetable contests, and craft fairs. The area fire departments also play an important role in the series of parades that occur there. Each year there is a King and Lady Fireman elected. Also there are many rides and homemade, homegrown buckwheat cakes and sausage.

Recipes

• Buckwheat pancakes
• Buckwheat noodles with smoked salmon and dill
• Recipe for Buckwheat Porridge

References

• Alternative Field Crops Manual
• Damania, A.B. 1998. "Diversity of Major Cultivated Plants Domesticated in the Near East".[1]
• Chun H.N., Chung C.K., Kang I.J., Kim E.R., Kim Y.S., Division of Life Sciences at Hallym University, South Korea: Effect of Germination on the Nutritional Value of Buckwheat Seed
• Mazza, G. 1992. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), the crop and its importance, p. 534-539. In: R. MacRae (ed.). Encyclopedia of food science, food technology and nutrition. Academic Press Ltd., London.
• Mazza, G. 1993. Storage, Processing, and Quality Aspects of Buckwheat Seed, p. 251-255. In: J. Janick and J.E. Simon (eds.), New crops. Wiley, New York.
• Marshall, H.G. and Y. Pomeranz. 1982. Buckwheat description, breeding, production and utilization, p. 157-212 In: Y. Pomeranz (ed.). Advances in cereal science and technology. Amer. Assoc. Cereal Chem., St. Paul, MN.
• McGregor, S.E. 1976. Insect Pollination Of Cultivated Crop Plants, chap. 9 Crop Plants and Exotic Plants. U.S. Department of Agriculture. As found on the website of the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center of the USDA Agricultural Research Service.[2]

• Multilingual taxonomic information from the University of Melbourne

Footnotes

See also

• Eriogonum - wild buckwheat

Cereals and pseudocereals
Amaranth · Barley · Buckwheat · Fonio · Job's Tears · Kañiwa · Maize (Corn) · Millet · Oat · Quinoa · Rice · Rye · Sorghum · Spelt · Triticale · Teff · Wild rice · Wheat

External links

Kingwood Buckwheat Festival Official Site

• http://www.buckwheatfest.com/map_wv.html

• Nutritional information for buckwheathsb:Hejduška

Donate to Wikimedia