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Buckwheat flour

Buckwheat
Fagopyrum esculentum
Japanese Buckwheat Flower.JPG
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Polygonaceae
Genus: Fagopyrum
Species: F. esculentum
Binomial name
Fagopyrum esculentum
Moench
Synonyms
  • Polygonum fagopyrum L. 1753
  • Fagopyrum cereale Raf.
  • Fagopyrum dryandrii Fenzl
  • Fagopyrum emarginatum (Roth) Meisn. 1840
  • Fagopyrum emarginatum Moench 1802
  • Fagopyrum fagopyrum (L.) H.Karst., invalid tautonym
  • Fagopyrum polygonum Macloskie
  • Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib.
  • Fagopyrum sarracenicum Dumort.
  • Fagopyrum vulgare Hill ex Druce 1913
  • Fagopyrum vulgare T.Nees 1853
  • Polygonum emarginatum Roth
Buckwheat
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 1,435 kJ (343 kcal)
71.5 g
Dietary fiber 10 g
3.4 g
Saturated 0.741 g
Monounsaturated 1.04 g
Polyunsaturated 1.039 g
0.078 g
0.961 g
13.25 g
Vitamins
Thiamine (B1)
(9%)
0.101 mg
Riboflavin (B2)
(35%)
0.425 mg
Niacin (B3)
(47%)
7.02 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)
(25%)
1.233 mg
Vitamin B6
(16%)
0.21 mg
Folate (B9)
(8%)
30 μg
Vitamin C
(0%)
0 mg
Minerals
Calcium
(2%)
18 mg
Iron
(17%)
2.2 mg
Magnesium
(65%)
231 mg
Manganese
(62%)
1.3 mg
Phosphorus
(50%)
347 mg
Potassium
(10%)
460 mg
Sodium
(0%)
1 mg
Zinc
(25%)
2.4 mg
Other constituents
Copper 1.1 mg
Selenium 8.3 µg

Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a plant cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. To distinguish it from a related species, Fagopyrum tataricum, it is also known as Japanese buckwheat and silverhull buckwheat.

Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass. Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Because its seeds are eaten and rich in complex carbohydrates, it is referred to as a pseudocereal. The cultivation of buckwheat grain declined sharply in the 20th century with the adoption of nitrogen fertilizer that increased the productivity of other staples.

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 word may be a translation of Middle Dutch boecweite: boec (Modern Dutch beuk), "beech" (see PIE *bhago-) and weite (Mod. Dut. weit), wheat, or may be a native formation on the same model as the Dutch word.

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, a southwestern province of China. The wild ancestor of tartary buckwheat is F. tataricum ssp. potanini.

Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in inland Southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BCE, and from there spread to Central Asia and Tibet, and then to the Middle East and Europe. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China. Buckwheat is documented in Europe in Finland by at least 5300 BCE as a first sign of agriculture, and in the Balkans by circa 4000 BCE in the Middle Neolithic. Russian-speakers call buckwheat (grechka) meaning "little Greek", due to its introduction in the seventh century by the Byzantine Greeks; the same is the case in Ukrainian.


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Wikipedia

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