Abstract
Buckwheat is a pseudocereal with high nutritional and nutraceutical properties. Although common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is the main cultivated species, Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is gaining interest. In this paper, we compared plant growth, yield-related parameters and seed nutritional qualities of two varieties of F. esculentum and F. tataricum under field conditions in Belgium. Fagopyrum esculentum flowered earlier, produced less nodes, less branches, less inflorescences, but more flowers per inflorescence than F. tataricum. The yield was higher in F. tataricum, while the thousand-grain weight was higher in F. esculentum. Yield ranged between 2037 kg/ha and 3667 kg/ha depending on the species and year. Regarding nutritional qualities, seeds of F. esculentum contained more proteins (15.4% vs. 12.8%) than seeds of F. tataricum although their amino acid profile was similar. Seeds of F. esculentum contained also more Mg (1.36 vs. 1.15 mg/g dry weight (DW)) and less Fe (22.9 vs. 32.6 µg/g DW) and Zn (19.6 vs. 24.5 µg/g DW) than F. tataricum. The main difference between seed nutritional quality was the concentration of flavonoids that was 60 times higher in F. tataricum than in F. esculentum. Both species grow well under Belgian conditions and showed good seed quality.
Highlights
Buckwheat is a dicotyledon belonging to the Polygonaceae family and the Fagopyrum genus [1]
It was previously observed that the yield of F. tataricum was higher than in F. esculentum and it was suggested to be explained by the selfing of F. tataricum [21]
Common and Tartary buckwheat were grown in Belgium under field conditions and compared regarding growth parameters and seed nutritional qualities
Summary
Buckwheat is a dicotyledon belonging to the Polygonaceae family and the Fagopyrum genus [1] Inside this genus, two species are cultivated, Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (common buckwheat) and Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn (Tartary buckwheat) [2]. Two species are cultivated, Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (common buckwheat) and Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaertn (Tartary buckwheat) [2] The former accounts for 90% of the world buckwheat production. Both species originated from China [3,4]. Fagopyrum tataricum originates from the Himalayan region and has been cultivated for at least 4000 years [7] It grows wild in China, Siberia, Tibet, Kashmir and northern Pakistan [3] and two independent domestication events occurred in southwestern and northern China [7]. In most western European countries, buckwheat production has declined during the 20th century with the development of more productive crops, but it is currently receiving renewed attention for its nutritional and environmentally friendly qualities [4,15,16,17]
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