Lignan levels in buckwheat and cereal foods
What it found
The amounts and types of lignans in buckwheat and other grains vary widely, and whole grains and wholemeal products tend to contain more than refined ones.
These values come from published measurements of foods, not from studies in people.
What they found
Lignans in grains
Across grains, total average lignan values ranged from 23 to 401 micrograms per 100 grams dry weight. Dehulled oat and barley had the highest values among the 10 cereal species reported.
Buckwheat included
Buckwheat was one of the grains listed in the database. The paper does not give a separate lignan value for buckwheat alone.
Whole versus refined
Wholemeal flour was richer in lignans than refined flour, and whole wheat bread had more than refined wheat bread. This is because lignans are mainly located in the grain outer layers.
Lariciresinol common
In most of the studied grains, lariciresinol was the predominant lignan among those reported.
Bread making
Secoisolariciresinol diglucoside was stable during bread making and could withstand the higher temperatures in the core during baking. In a product containing flaxseed, 89% of the original lignan content was kept after baking.
Breakfast cereals
Breakfast cereals contained total lignans in a range from 154 to 286 micrograms per 100 grams dry weight in one study, and 209 to 764 micrograms per 100 grams wet basis in another. Lariciresinol and pinoresinol were found at higher concentrations than secoisolariciresinol in most items.
What the authors conclude
- They state that the database can be useful for understanding the potential effects of specific lignans in epidemiological studies or estimating human dietary exposure to lignans from cereal based foods.
- They note that the database is limited and can be updated as new data become available.
How it was done
The authors wanted to update food lignan databases so that nutritionists and researchers can better estimate how much lignan people get from cereal foods and study possible health effects.
They gathered published measurements of four lignans (secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol, pinoresinol and lariciresinol) in grains, brans, flours, bread, cereal staple foods, breakfast cereals and other cereal products, including buckwheat. They grouped the foods and reported average and range values.
What it can’t tell you
- This paper only reports the amounts of lignans measured in foods. It does not test what those amounts do in the body.
- The values come from different published studies, so they cannot show cause and effect on health.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), Italy
The paper
- Title
- Lignan Content in Cereals, Buckwheat and Derived Foods
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Durazzo A, Zaccaria M, Polito A, Maiani G, Carcea M (2013). Lignan Content in Cereals, Buckwheat and Derived Foods. Foods (Basel, Switzerland). doi:10.3390/foods2010053Free full textPubMed 28239096DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error