Variation of rutin and quercetin contents in Tartary buckwheat germplasm

This study was carried out to investigate the regional variation and effects of shape and color of seeds and sprouts on the content of rutin and quercetin in Tartary buckwheat germplasm. A total of 44 foreign Tartary buckwheat germplasms were examined and compared their rutin and quercetin contents based on the collected countries, seed shape and seed color using high-performance liquid chromatography and spectrophotometry. The results revealed that rutin and quercetin content varied at different regions. Rutin content in seed (1326.5 mg/100 g) and sprouts (5440.4 mg/ 100 g) of the accession collected from Nepal area was higher than any accession collected from other regions. In seeds, the quercetin content showed the highest value (22.5 mg/100 g) from Pakistan whereas sprouts showed the highest quercetin content (392.0 mg/100 g) from China. However, the quercetin content in sprout was 4~90 times higher than that of seeds. Taken together, the present study suggests that sprouts could be used more effectively than seeds in the case of quercetin, and strains from Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Japan have a high potential material to use seed and sprouts for buckwheat industry in making functional food and medicine.Received: April 29, 2019; accepted: June 15, 2019Keywords: Tartary buckwheat; seed; sprout; germplasm; rutin; quercetin