Abstract
Buckwheat is an important grain crop known for its nutritional value and content of bioactive compounds, particularly rutin. In this study, we characterized diverse Fagopyrum esculentum Moench germplasm for the diversity of agro-morphological characteristics and the rutin and quercetin content in seeds under the spring cultivation. Of the 251 germplasm accessions assessed, 193 had red stems, 182 had a pale brown seed coat color, and 238 had ovate seeds. The times taken to reach 50% flowering and 80% maturity ranged from 38–45 to 73–95 days, respectively. The 1000-seed weight (TSW) varied from 21 to 42 g. Overall, the content of rutin and quercetin ranged from 7.22–47.86 to 0–1.22 mg/100 g DW, respectively. The number of days to flowering and maturity showed negative correlations with TSW and rutin and quercetin content. However, we found that at 73–80 days after sowing, early-maturing germplasm had significantly higher mean rutin content than either intermediate-or late-maturing germplasm. The TSW weight showed a positive correlation with the content of rutin and quercetin. We identified promising accessions based early maturity (< 80 days), higher seed weight (≥ 35 g) and higher content of rutin (≥ 35 mg/100 g DW) and quercetin (≥ 1 mg/100 g DW). These accessions will help to enhance grain yield and the rutin and quercetin content in existing buckwheat cultivars for spring cultivation.
Highlights
Buckwheat is a dicotyledonous grain crop plant in the family Polygonaceae, which is known for its high nutritional value and bioactive components, the content of rutin and quercetin
We evaluated 251 common buckwheat germplasm accessions held in the collection of the National Genetic Resource Center, Rural Development Administration (RDA), Jeonju, The Republic of Korea
These results indicate that, in terms of morphological traits, common buckwheat germplasm is characterized by considerable diversity, which could be a consequence of outcrossing, given that common buckwheat is a self-incompatible species in which fertilization occurs via insect-mediated cross-pollination (Iwata et al 2005; Grahic et al 2016)
Summary
Buckwheat is a dicotyledonous grain crop plant in the family Polygonaceae, which is known for its high nutritional value and bioactive components, the content of rutin and quercetin. It shows considerable adaptability to diverse ecological environments and can be grown on a wide range of soils under various climatic conditions (Li and Zhang 2001). It is grown worldwide throughout Asia, Europe, the United States (USA), Brazil, Canada, Australia, and South Africa (Kiprovski et al 2015), the main areas of cultivation are in East Asian countries (Wiczkowski et al 2014). Tartary buckwheat is mainly cultivated in Asia, whereas common buckwheat is grown more extensively in virtually all grain crop-producing countries (Chen et al 2018)
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