The use of tartary buckwheat whole flour to introduce rutin in preventive amounts in bread typical of the region Tuscany (central Italy).

Thanks to the high rutin content of its grain and whole flour, tartary buckwheat can be proposed as an ingredient of new food preparations containing effective amounts of this bioactive compound credited to exert a growing multiplicity of health beneficial properties. In this respect, most dietary supplement preparations, containing around 50 mg of rutin, are suggested as the daily preventive dose. Considering that the content of rutin of tartary buckwheat whole flour usually ranges between 1000 up to 2000 mg/100 g dry weight, the introduction of a low percentage of this ingredient in the original recipe would allow to reach such amount in a food largely consumed like bread. Preliminary result would indicate that, in the preparation of a typical Tuscany bread, a certain amount (up to 20%) of wheat flour can be replaced by a mixture of common and tartary buckwheat whole flour so to allegedly secure an intake of 50 mg of rutin through the average daily consumption of bread (about 200 g) in addition to an appreciable content of beneficial buckwheat protein and amylase resistant starch. However, efforts are to be dedicated to identify the most suited wheat flour in order not to impair texture, taste and acceptability of the bread so amended. In addition most of the rutin was not recovered in the final products, either degraded to quercetin or lost during preparation and baking processes. Research are underway to verify the extent of rutin degradation to quercetin by the hydrolyzing enzymes, known to be present in tartary buckwheat grain, during the phase of dough formation and successive leavening and to workout processing conditions apt to control such a phenomenon.