Abstract

Buckwheat originated from China and is being cultivated all over the world. Among the pseudocereals (amaranthus, buckwheat and quinoa), buckwheat plants economically important due to carbohydrates and protein rich grains, short growth span; besides foliage being used as a green vegetable and commercial source of the glycoside rutin are used in medicine. In the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate the cell wall constituents of promising leaves and grain genotypes of common buckwheat grown in sangla region by following standard procedure. Wide variation in cellulose, hemicellulose, acid detergent lignin, acid detergent fibre and neutral detergent fibre were observed to range from 8.1 to 13.9%, 10.7 to 22.2%, 9.9 to 13.9%, 18.1 to 24.9% and 31.4 to 44.0% in grains, whereas 13.1 to 17.2%, 12.4 to 17.5%, 6.3 to 9.0%, 19.8 to 23.8% and 35.8 to 38.0% in that order in leaves. Thus, nutrient variation observed will be useful in designing strategies that maximize the utilization of buckwheat crop as forage.