Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the major flavonoids content and bioactivities of Tartary buckwheat sprouts. The crude methanol extract (ME) of Tartary buckwheat sprouts was abundant in flavonoids, and six major flavonoids, including isoorientin, vitexin, isovitexin, rutin, quercetin, and kaemferol were successfully determined from the sprouts by the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Generally, the flavonoid content of buckwheat sprouts was in the order of rutin > quercetin > isovitexin > vitexin> isoorientin > kaemferol. The highest rutin content of the ME and sprout cultures was 89.81 mg/g and 31.50 mg/g, respectively. Antibacterial activity results indicated the ME displayed notable inhibitory activity against the five tested bacteria, and its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranged from 0.8 mg/mL to 3.2 mg/mL. Among the six flavonoids, quercetin was the most active compound, which exhibited strong activity against all tested bacteria except for E. coli and S. epidermidis, with its MIC values ranging from 0.2 mg/mL to 0.4 mg/mL. For the antifungal activity assay, the ME of Tartary buckwheat sprouts and four flavonoids could significantly inhibit the spore germination of two pathogenic fungi, and their inhibitory efficiency was concentration dependent. Quercetin was the most active one, which significantly inhibited the spore germination of F. oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum and F. oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum, and its median effective inhibitory concentration (IC50) value was 42.36 and 32.85 µg/mL, respectively. The antioxidant activity results showed that quercetin, kaemferol, and rutin displayed excellent antioxidant activity in the DPPH radical scavenging test, and their IC50 value was calculated as 5.60, 16.23, and 27.95 µg/mL, respectively. This is the first report on the antimicrobial activity of the crude extract of Tartary buckwheat sprouts. These results indicated that the methanol extract of Tartary buckwheat sprouts could be used as a potential antimicrobial or antioxidant agent in the future.
Highlights
Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn. (Tartary buckwheat), of the Polygonaceae family, is a well-known edible and medicinal coarse cereal that is widely consumed around the world [1]
The total flavonoids content of the crude methanol extract (ME) of Tartary buckwheat sprouts was measured, and the results indicated the ME was abundant in flavonoids, and its content was determined as 98.6 mg/g
The crude methanol extract of Tartary buckwheat sprout cultures was abundant in flavonoids
Summary
Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn. (Tartary buckwheat), of the Polygonaceae family, is a well-known edible and medicinal coarse cereal that is widely consumed around the world [1]. (Tartary buckwheat), of the Polygonaceae family, is a well-known edible and medicinal coarse cereal that is widely consumed around the world [1]. It is mainly cultivated in southwestern China, northern India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and has been utilized as the staple food by minority people in southwestern China for a long time [2,3]. Buckwheat sprout cultures have a crisp texture, slightly sour and bitter taste, with an appealing fragrance. It has been reported that Tartary buckwheat sprouts mainly contain rutin and quercetin, whereas other flavonoids (i.e., vitexin, isovitexin, kaemferol) are in trace amounts or have not even been detected in some varieties [22,23]. The antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the crude methanol extract (ME) and its main flavonoids were evaluated, and the structure–activity relationship (SAR) of the flavonoids was further elucidated
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