Buckwheat is a gluten-free pseudo-cereal that is a part of the Polygonaceae family. Grain of buckwheat is a highly healthy component of food and has been found to have a broad variety of beneficial effects. It is cultivated as grain in a popular buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) which has a secondary significance in many countries. It contains certain high-level nutritionally beneficial components and can have other characteristics as functional food. Buckwheat protein is of outstanding quality and, unlike popular cereals, is rich in essential amino acid, lysine. Health benefits of this plants include reducing plasma cholesterol level, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, anti-cancer, anti-diabetic effects and enhancing hypertension symptoms. Buckwheat is also used in gluten free diet in people with celiac disease and used in the alleviation of other common disease. It has also been recognized that buckwheat has a prebiotic and antioxidant activity. The key purpose of this review article is to analyze advanced work on the health benefits of buckwheat, concentrating on the particular function of its bioactive compounds and the process by which such effects are carried out.
Keywords: Buckwheat, bioactive compounds, health benefits, cancer, polygonaceae, Fagopyrum esculentum.