Fagopyrum 17: 63--66 (2000)

Rutin content in food products processed from groats, leaves, and

flowers of buckwheat
Cheol Ho PARK, Yeon Bok KIM, Yong Soon CHOI, Kwon HEO, Sun Lim KIMt,
Ki Cheol LEE2, Kwang Jin CHANG3 and Han Bum LEE4
College ofAgriculture and Life Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chunchon, 200-701. Korea
'Department ofCrop Environment, National Crop Experiment Station, Suwon, 441-100. Korea
2ChunchonNational University ofEducation. Chunchon, 200-703, Korea
'Korean National Agriculture College. Hwasung, 445-890, Korea
"Departmeni ofCrop Science, Kyeonggi Provincial Agriculture Technology. Hwasung, 445-970, Korea
Received September5, 2000; acceptedin revisedformSeptember18,2000.
Key words: Fagopyrum species, flower tea, popped buckwheat groats, rutin content
ABSTRACT
To assist in the develop of new buckwheat food products, the rutin content was analyzed in processed groats, leaves,
and flowers of buckwheat. The rutin content in the food products processed from groats, flowers, and leaves of
buckwheat varied according to the processing method and plant part processed. The rutin content in seed derived
products ranged from 0.48mg/l OOg to 4.97mglI00g. The Korean var. Suwon 1 contained 28mg/l OOg of rutin before
boiling but this decreased to 0.5mgll OOg after boiling. Popped groats (4.0mg/l OOg) as well as powdered popped groats
(5.0mg/100g) showed higher rutin content than boiled groats. Flower tea had the highest rutin content, ranging from
396mg/100g (first boiled tea) to 78mg/l00g (second boiled tea). There were big differences (74-301mg/100g) among
the genotypes of common buckwheat and wild buckwheat species in rutin content of the liquid or powder when using
dried leaves.
INTRODUCTION
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), family
Polygonaceae, classified as a pseudo-cereal, is a crop
adapted to cool, moist climates and to a growing season
60-70 days long. In Korea, the total area devoted to
the production of buckwheat was approximately 4600ha
in 1998. Buckwheat is marketed as flour for the manu-
facture of noodles, and also as groats for several prod-
ucts. It is a crop species of considerable importance and
its use is now becoming more widespread due to its
high nutritive and pharmaceutical value (Marshall and
Pomeranz, 1983; Choi et al., 1996; Shim et aI., 1998).
Consumption in markets has already increased over the
past several years. It is consumed mainly in the form of
noodles and dumplings. However, many people have a
desire in processing buckwheat materials to produce
high quality food products for health reasons. Especially,
the rutin content of buckwheat plants and food is a
matter of common interest to those for whom intensive
health care is needed. The rutin content in buckwheat
plants, including the leaf, stem, flower, root, groat, or
hull, has previously been reported in several research
papers (Kim et aI., 1994; Choi et al., 1996; Shim et al.,
1998) but available information on rutin content in food
products made from buckwheat materials is very limited.
In this paper we report on rutin content in processed
groats, leaves, and flowers of buckwheat as a strategy to
63
develop high quality food products.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Korean common buckwheat cv. Suwon 1 and 8 intro-
duced lines or species of buckwheat including Fagopy-
rum esculentum (Youngwoljaerae), F tataricum, F ho-
motropicum, F cymosum (2x) from Kunming, Yunnan,
F cymosum (4x) from Baoshan, Yunnan F cymosum
(2x) from Heqin, Yunnan F statice from Chengjiang,
Yunnan, and F urophyllum from Luchen, Yunnan were
grown in the field at Chunchon. The 8 introduced lines
or species were kindly provided by Dr. O. Ohnishi, Plant
Germ-Plasm Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Seeds of Suwon 1 were harvested and used for making
beverage. The flowers and inflorecsences of Suwon 1
were picked at flowering time and dried in the shade
for making tea. Leaves of the 9 buckwheat lines were
harvested at flowering time and dried in an oven before
milling.
The pericarps of the seeds were removed and the
groats (lOg) were boiled in 500 ml of hot water for 10
min. Dehulled seeds were popped in a steel chamber
under high temperature and pressure. The popped groats
(30 g, 109) were boiled in 500 ml hot water for 10 min.
The popped groats were ground by a mill to make
powder. The dried flowers and flower inflorescences of
buckwheat (2 g) were boiled in 500 ml hot water for 10
64
Table I.
Parket al.
Instrument and operating conditions for rutin analysis of9 buckwheat lines.
Instrument
Wave length
Column
Mobil phase
Flow rate
Shimazu SPD-7AVUV Detector
345 nm
Il Bondapak CI8
Acetic acid (2.4%) : Methanol : cetonitr ile (35: 5 : 10 V/V)
1.0 ml/min
Table 2. Rutin content (mg/lOOg) in beverage made from processed buckwheat groats.
Food product
Cultivar Use Rutin content
Boiled without popping Suwon I Beverage 0.48
Boiled after popped (30g) II II 4.00
Boi led after popped (lOg) II II 0.78
Milled after popped
"
Snack 4.97
Table 3. Rutin content (mg/l OOg) in tea made of flowers of buckwheat var. Suwon I.
Products
Flower boiled for 10 min
Second boiled one of flower boiled
Cultivar
Suwon I
Suwon I
Use
Tea
Tea
Rutin content
396
78.3
min to make tea.
The dried leaves of 4 species [F. esculentum
(Youngwoljaerae), F. tataricum, F. homotropicum, and
F. cymosum (Kunming)] were boiled for 10 min to make
tea and leaves of the other 4 species [F. cymosum
(Baoshan), F. cymosum (Heqin), F.statice, F. urophyllum]
were ground by a mill to make leaf powder. The rutin
content in each processed product was analyzed in three
replications by HPLC analysis (see Table 1) based on
the method of Kim et al. (1998) and expressed on a dry
weight basis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The rutin content in food products processed from
groats, flowers, and leaves of buckwheat varied accord-
ing to the processing method and plant part analyzed
(Fig. I). The rutin content in seed derived products
ranged from 0.48mg/l OOg to 4.97mg/l OOg (Table 2).
The popped groat contained more rutin in both boiled
water and as a powder when compared to water boiled
groats without popping. However, second boiled ex-
tracts of popped groats showed markedly decreased
rutin content.
Kim et al. (1994) reported 13.4mg/IOOg rutin content
in buckwheat groats. Shim et al. (1998) compared the
rutin contents in groats among different Korean buck-
wheat cultivars. They found a wide range of rutin con-
tent from 9.5mg/lOOg to 30.3mg/100g among the culti-
vars. However, they didn't process the groats, hence
they didn't analyze the rutin contents in food products
made from groats after processing. In this study, Suwon
1 contained 28mg/l00g of rutin before boiling but this
decreased to 0.5mg/lOOg after boiling. However,
popped groats showed a higher rutin content than boiled
groats (4.0mg/I00g) as well as powdered popped groats
(5.0mg/I00g). Further studies are required to clarify the
reason for the difference between popped groats and
non-popped groats.
As shown in Table 3, it is very interesting that tea
frombuckwheat flowers was the highest in rutin content.
It ranged from 396mg/iOOg (first boiled tea) to 78mg/
100g (second boiled tea). Its rutin quantity is almost 80
fold as compared to that of the seed-derived beverage.
Buckwheat flower tea tastes very good, much like green
tea. It seems to have good potential for ccmmercializa-
tion when mass production becomes possible and any
side effects which may occur from any other compo-
nents in the flower have been tested. Kim et al. (1994)
analyzed 377.3mg/lOOgof rutin content in flowers from
buckwheat. Park (1964) found that 68% of the rutin
content was contained in the flowers at flowering time.
The present study is the first report to confirm the high
rutin content in buckwheat flower tea. The very high
rutin content in both flowers and flower tea indicates a
good potential for commercialization of buckwheat
flowers.
There were big differences among the genotypes of
Rutin content in food products
Table 4. Rutin content (mgt l DOg) in foodstuffs made with dried leaves of different species of buckwheat.
Species
Cult ivar or species Use Rutin cont ent
F. esculentum
Yongwolj aerae Tea 197.64
F. tataricum Clfa
"
106.91
F. homotropicum Wild species
"
301.26
F cymosum (Kunming)
"
1/ 150.58
F. cymosum (Baoshan)
"
/I 166.97
F. cymosum (Heqin)
" "
236.30
F. statice
" "
74.54
F. urophyllum
" "
89.06
65
Fig. I. A: popped groat B: flower tea C: leaf powder
common buckwheat and wild buckwh eat species in rutin
content of both the liquid or powder prepared by using
dried leaves (Table 4). Fagopyrum homotropicum con-
tained the highest rutin content (30Img/I00g) in tea
made of leaves, while F. statice and F. urophyllum were
lowest in rutin content of powder from dried leaves
(74-89mg/ lOOg). Kim et al. (1994) reported 214.4mgl
IOOg in rutin content of leaves at the flowering stage just
before seed setting. Their results arc simi lar to the
present study, although there were some differences in
rutin content among the genotypes. Ilowever, dried
leaves generally lost rutin content as compared to un-
dried leaves. TIle loss of rutin on drying buckwheat was
reported to be 36% as a minimum and 100% as a maxi-
mum (Couch et al., 1946). The drying methods were
responsible for the differences in the rates of lost rutin.
Rutin was lost most severely when the buckwheat leaves
were dried at a low temperature over a long time. Ther e-
fore, buckwheat leaves must be dried in a short time at a
high temperature for making high rutin tea and powder.
ACKNOWLEDGEME. TS
The author s wish to thank Dr. O. Ohnishi, Plant Germ-
Plasm Institute, Kyoto University. for kindly supplying seeds
of wild species of Fagopyrum.
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