Buckwheat Sowing.

Buckwheat

An annual herbaceous plant of the buckwheat family, up to 150 cm high. The root is taproot, highly branched at the root collar and poorly developed at depth. The stem is erect, reddish, branching at the top.

The leaves are alternate, petiolate, triangular-heart-shaped. Blooms in July. Ripens in August. The flowers are white or pink with a simple perianth, collected in a raceme. The smell is pleasant, honey. The fruit is a triangular nut.

Buckwheat is widespread in the central zone of the European part of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Cultivated for grain, rutin and as a honey plant.

Used in the national economy. The proteins of buckwheat grains are close in nutritional value to the proteins of legumes, fats are resistant to oxidation, so buckwheat is stored for a long time. Buckwheat porridge with milk has a full composition of essential amino acids, which the human body is not able to fully synthesize. It is necessary for debilitated patients, elderly people and children.

Grain processing waste is used to feed livestock and poultry. It is recommended to use ground buckwheat flour, sifted on a fine sieve, as baby powder.

The tops of flowering leafy plants serve as medicinal raw materials. They are collected during flowering. Air dry in the shade. Vitamin P, rutin, is obtained from leaves and flowers. Chlorogenic, gallic, protocatechuic and caffeic acids were found in the grass.

For the treatment and prevention of all conditions that are accompanied by hemorrhages (in the brain, heart, retina, skin and mucous membranes), vitamin P is usually used in conjunction with vitamin C. In case of increased blood clotting, buckwheat preparations are contraindicated.

In folk medicine, an infusion of buckwheat leaves and flowers is prescribed as an expectorant and for the prevention of atherosclerosis. Fresh leaves are applied to festering wounds and boils.