Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum); buckwheat
An annual herbaceous plant of the buckwheat family. The stem is ribbed, erect, branched, bare, reddish, 30-70 cm tall. The leaves are red, arrow-shaped and triangular; the lower ones are long-petioled, the upper ones are almost sessile. The flowers are regular, bisexual, white, pale pink, pink or red, in corymbose inflorescences. The fruit is a nut. Blooms in July.
Distribution . Comes from India. It is grown as a grain crop mainly in Polissia and in the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine.
Raw. Seeds and grass (flowers together with upper leaves) are used for medicinal purposes. Grass, as a raw material for pharmaceutical plants, is harvested at the beginning of buckwheat flowering, when there is the most rutin in the plant. Flowers are used to make galenic preparations. Pharmacies do not release raw materials.
Chemical composition. Buckwheat groats contain up to 20% proteins with a high content of lysine and tryptophan, starch (up to 80%), sugar (0.3-0.5%), organic acids (malic, citric and others), vitamins (B 1 , B 2 , PP and P), macro- and microelements (iron, calcium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, boron, iodine, nickel, and cobalt). Buckwheat grass contains a lot (1.9-2.5%) of rutin.
Pharmacological properties and use. Buckwheat is a valuable dietary product. Dishes prepared from them are useful for people of any age. The use of buckwheat dishes is especially useful for gastrointestinal diseases, anemia, disorders of the nervous system, and kidney diseases. Rutin is obtained from the buckwheat herb, which is used for the prevention and treatment of hypo- and avitaminosis P, in diseases accompanied by vascular permeability disorders (hemorrhagic diatheses, capillary toxicosis, retinal hemorrhages, hypertensive and radiation diseases, glomerulonephritis, rheumatism, septic endocarditis, etc. ). A number of other products are obtained on the basis of rutin (urutin, rutamine, askorutin and others). In folk medicine, an infusion of flowers (separately or in combination with other medicinal plants) is drunk when coughing.
Medicinal forms and applications .
Internally – Rutin (Rutinum) 2 tablets 2-3 times a day, treatment course – 5-6 weeks ( it is contraindicated to use vitamin P with increased blood clotting);
infusion (40 g of flowers per 1 liter of boiling water) 1 glass 4-5 times a day as an expectorant;
50 g of a mixture of flowers of ordinary buckwheat, wild poppy, common oleander (10 g each), medicinal honeysuckle herb (10 g) and flowers of wild calico (60 g) pour 1 liter of boiling water, infuse overnight and drink 1 glass 5 times a day day with whooping cough;
40 g of a mixture of the flowers of common buckwheat, common spelt, black elderberry, linden (20 g each), flowers of wild poppy, scepter sceptre, wild sedge and medicinal medulla grass (30 g each) are poured with 1 liter of boiling water, infused overnight, strained and Drink a quarter of a glass after 1 hour for bronchitis with a dry exhausting cough