Job's tears (''Coix lacryma-jobi''), also known as adlay or adlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennial
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
of the family
Poaceae
Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivate ...
(grass family). It is native to
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and introduced to Northern China and India in remote antiquity, and elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an
annual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
tropics. In its native environment it is grown at higher
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's tears are also commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley, though true
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
belongs to a completely different genus.
There are two main varieties of the species, one wild and one cultivated. The wild variety, ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''lacryma-jobi'', has hard-shelled pseudocarps—very hard, pearly white, oval structures used as beads for making
prayer beads or
rosaries, necklaces, and other objects. The cultivated variety ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''ma-yuen'' is harvested as a
cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
crop, has a soft shell, and is used in traditional medicine in parts of Asia.
Nomenclature
Job's tears may also be referred to under different spellings (Job's-tears,
Jobs-tears
[). The crop is also known by other common names in English, such as adlay or adlay millet. Other common names in English include coix seed,] gromwell grass, and tear grass.
The seeds are known in Chinese as ''yìyǐ rén'' (),[ where ''rén'' means "kernel", and also described in Latin as ''semen coicis'' or ''semen coicis lachryma-jobi'' in pharmacopoeic literature.][
]
Taxonomy
The species, native to Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
, was named by Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in 1753 with the epithet
An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...
as a Latin translation of the metaphorical '' tear of Job
Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...
''. , four varieties are accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected p ...
:
* ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''lacryma-jobi''
:Widely distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
to peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...
and Taiwan; naturalized elsewhere. The involucres are ovoid, bony and glossy. It has hard shells and is used as beads in crafts.
* ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''ma-yuen''
:South China to peninsular Malaysia and the Philippines.
:The varietal name is eponymous after General Ma Yuen or Ma Yuan Ma Yuan may refer to:
* Ma Yuan (Han dynasty) (馬援; 14 BC – 49 AD), general of the Han dynasty
* Ma Yuan (painter) (馬遠; 1160–1225), painter of the Song dynasty
* Ma Yuan (judge) (:zh:馬原 (政治人物), 馬原; born 1930), a former V ...
() who according to legend learned of the plant's use when he was posted in Cochin China
Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; ; ; ; ) is a historical exonym for part of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, usually for Southern Vietnam. Sometimes it referred to the whole of Vietnam, but it was commonly used to refer to the region south o ...
(or Tonkin
Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...
, in what is now Vietnam), and brought the seeds back to China to be cultivated.[ The involucres are elliptical, striate and soft.
* ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''puellarum''
:Assam to Yunnan (China) and Indochina. It is the smallest among the Indian species, with only 4mm in diameter of the seeds. It is used for ornament as well.
* ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' var. ''stenocarpa''
:Eastern Himalayas to Indochina.
Job's tearsalong with ''Coix'' in was formerly placed in the Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.][p.331, "Maize and ''Tripsacum'' were previously grouped with a number of other grasses that have monoecious flowering patterns the most widely known being Job's tears (''Coix lacryma-jobi'') into the Maydeae (74); however, molecular data revealed that this grouping was polyphyletic (61)."] It has cylindrical, longer than broad involucres. It is widely used as beads for ornaments.
Morphology
Job's tear is a monoecious grass which is broad-leaved, loose-growing, branched and robust. It can reach a height between 1.20 m to 1.80 m. Like all members of the genus, their inflorescences develop from a leaf sheath at the end of the stem and consist partly of hard, globular or oval, hollow, bead-like structures.
Job's tear seeds differ in color, with the more soft-shelled seeds being light brown and the hard-shelled forms having a dark red pericarp.
The hardened "shells" covering the seeds are technically the fruit-case or involucre
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale.
Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...
(hardened bract),[ with the bract also referred to as "capsule-spathe" or "sheathing bract" by some past botanical works.][
These shells cover the bases of the flowers (inflorescences) which are male and female racemes/panicles; the male racemes project upright and consist of overlapping scale-like spikelets, with yellow ]stamens
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...
that pop out in-between, and there are one or two yarn-like stigmas drooping from the base.[
]
Proteins
Job's tears – as with ''Coix'' in general – produces its own variety of α-zein prolamin
Prolamins are a group of plant storage proteins having a high proline amino acid content. They are found in plants, mainly in the seeds of cereal grains such as wheat ( gliadin), barley ( hordein), rye ( secalin), corn ( zein), sorghum ( kafiri ...
s. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.[p.335, "Clusters of locally duplicated genes can also expand and contract rapidly, as shown by investigation of the 22-kDa α zein gene families in maize, sorghum, and coix, which appear to have experienced independent copy-number amplifications since the divergence of these three species (107)."]
History
Job's tears is native to Southeast Asian countries, namely India, Myanmar, China, and Malaysia. Residue on pottery from a Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
(late Yangshao Culture
The Yangshao culture ( zh, c=仰韶文化, p=Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The Yangshao culture saw social and ...
) site in north-central China shows that Job's tears, together with non-native barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
and other plants were used to brew beer as early as ca. 3000 BC.[
Job's tears were already introduced to Japan (and probably cultivated alongside rice) in the Early ]Jōmon Period
In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...
, corroborated by finds in Western Japan (Chūgoku region
The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori and Yamaguchi. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 7,328,339 ...
), e.g., from studies of phytoliths in the (ca. 4000 BC) in Okayama Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...
.[ And further east in Japan, the plant has been found at the Toro site, Shizuoka Prefecture dating to the ]Yayoi Period
The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...
.[
Remains of Job's tears have been found in archaeological sites in northeastern India, dating to around 1000 BC. It was introduced to the subtropical area in India from the east Himalayan belt.] A number of scholars support the view it has been in cultivation in India in the 2000–1000 BC period. The wild varieties have hard-coated seeds. Job's tear was one of the earliest domesticated crops. Domestication makes the seed coat become softer and easier to cook.
In China, the current cultivation of Job's tears mainly occurs in Fujian, Jiangsu, Hebei, and Liaoning provinces. The cultivation of Job's tears spreads out to temperate areas in North and Northeast China. The shelled grains exported from China were erroneously declared through customs as "pearl barley
Pearl barley, or pearled barley, is barley that has been processed to remove its fibrous outer hull and polished to remove some or all of the bran
Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting o ...
", and "Chinese pearl barley" remains an alternate common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...
so that the grains are sold under such label in Asian supermarket
In non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East (e.g. East Asia, East, Southeast Asia, Southeast and South Asia ...
s, even though ''C. lacryma-jobi'' is not closely related to barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
(''Hordeum vulgare'').[
The name "Job's tears" is a ]calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
of Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
(''dumūʿ ʾAyyūb''), the name used by Arab merchants who introduced the plant to Europe in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
. They used the pseudocarps for ''misbaha
A ''misbaha'' (), ''subḥa'' () Gulf countries people call it Mesbah (Arabic: مِسْبَاَحْ) (Arabic and Urdu), ''tusbaḥ'' ( Somali), ''tasbīḥ'' () (Iran, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia ...
'' (prayer beads) and associated them with the account of the suffering of Job (Ayyub) in the Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
, which is derived from the portrayal of Job
Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...
in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Job
The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...
.
Uses
Crafts
The hard, white grains of Job's tears have historically been used as beads
A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under 1 ...
to make necklaces and other objects. The seeds are naturally bored with holes without the need to artificially puncture them.
Strands of Job's tears are used as Buddhist prayer beads in parts of India, Myanmar, Laos, Taiwan, and Korea according to Japanese researcher Yukino Ochiai who has specialized on the ethnobotanic usage of the plant. They are also made into rosaries in countries such as the Philippines and Bolivia.
East Asia
= Japan
=
In Japan, the grains growing wild are called ), and children have made playthings out of them by stringing them into necklaces. However, ''juzu-dama'' was a corruption of ''zuzu-dama'' according to folklorist Kunio Yanagita
was a Japanese author, scholar, and Folklore studies, folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a change in his career. His pursuit of this led to his eventual e ...
. A type of Buddhist rosary called ''irataka no juzu'', which were hand-made by the ''yamabushi
are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhism and Shinto.
Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or holy persons) of the eighth ...
'' ascetics practicing '' shugendō'' training, purportedly used a large-grain type known as .[ Although this was published as a separate variety, ''C. lacryma jobi'' var. ''maxima'' ,][ it is now regarded as synonymous to ''C. lacryma jobi'' var. ''lacryma-jobi'' according to taxonomical databases (World Checklist of Selected Plant Families).]
It was contended by Edo Period scholar Ono Ranzan that the soft-shelled edible type called ''shikoku-mugi'' was not introduced into Japan until the Kyōho era (1716–1736), as opposed to a hard-shelled edible type called ''chōsen-mugi'' (lit. ‘Korean wheat’) which needed to be beaten in order to crack and thresh them.[ This type has been published as a separate species, ''C. agrestis'' in the past,][ but this is now recognized also as a synonym of ''C. lacryma jobi'' var. ''lacryma-jobi''.] Thus Japanese consumption of the crop attested in pre-Kyōho literature presumably used this hard-shelled type in the recipe.
Yanagita contended that the use of the beads predated the introduction of Buddhism into Japan (552/538 CE). And the plant has not only been found at sites dating to approximately this period at the Kuroimine Site, but in Jomon period sites dating to several millennia BC.
= Ocean Road hypothesis
=
Yanagita in his Ocean Road hypothesis argues that the pearly glistening seeds were regarded as simulating or substituting for cowrie shells, which were used as ornaments and currency throughout Southern China and Southeast Asia in antiquity, and he argued both items to be part of cultural transmission into Japan from these areas.[ ]950
Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids into Byzantine theme Anatolia. He defea ...
§2
Later scholars have pursued the validity of the thesis. Yanagita had reproduced a distribution map of the usage of ornamental cowries throughout Asia (compiled by J. Wilfrid Jackson), and Japanese ethnologist alluded to a need for a distribution map of ornamental Job's tears, for making comparison therewith.
Mainland Southeast Asia
= Thailand and Myanmar
=
The Akha people
The Akha are an ethnic group who live in small villages at higher elevations in the mountains of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Yunnan Province in China. They made their way from China into Southeast Asia during the early 20th century. Civil war in ...
and the Karen people
The Karen ( ), also known as the Kayin, are an ethnolinguistic group of peoples who speak Karenic languages and are indigenous to southern and southeastern Myanmar, including the Irrawaddy Delta, Irrawaddy delta and Kayin State. The Karen ac ...
who live in the mountainous regions around the Thai-Myanmar border grow several varieties of the plant and use the beads to ornament various handicraft. The beads are used strictly only on women's apparel among the Akha, sewn onto headwear, jackets, handbags, etc.; also, a variety of shapes of beads are used. The beads are used only on the jackets of married women among the Karen, and the oblong seeds are exclusively selected, some example has been shown from the Karen in Chiang Rai Province
Chiang Rai (, ; , ) is one of Thailand's seventy-six Provinces of Thailand, provinces that lies in Northern Thailand#Regional classification of northern Thailand, upper northern Thailand and is Thailand's northernmost province. It is bordered ...
of Thailand.
Strands of job's tears necklaces have also been collected from Chiang Rai Province, Thailand and it is known the Karen people string the beads into necklaces, such necklaces in use also in the former Karenni States (current Kayah State of Burma), with the crop being known by the name ''cheik'' (var. ''kyeik'', ''kayeik'', ''kyeit'') in Burmese. Job's tears necklace has been collected also from Yunnan Province
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
, China,[ which has a population of Akha- Hani people and other minorities, but the ]Wa people
The Wa people ( Wa: Vāx; , ; ; ''Wáa'') are a Southeast Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in Northern Myanmar, in the northern part of Shan State and the eastern part of Kachin State, near and along Myanmar's border with China, as well as ...
of Yunnan also used the plant seeds (''tɛ kao''; lit. ‘fruit-Coix’) sewn onto fabrics and bags, etc.[
The Wa people and other minorities like the ]Taungyo
The Taungyo ( ''Tauñyoù lumyoù'') are a sub-ethnic group of the Bamar people living primarily in Shan State and centered on Pindaya.
Language
They speak Taungyo (တောင်ရိုးစကား Tauñyoùs̱áḵà), a Tavoyan dialect ...
ethnic group use the beads in apparel in Shan State
Shan State (, ; , ) is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha Province, Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai Province, Chia ...
, Myanmar.
Insular Southeast Asia
= Borneo
=
Various indigenous Bornean tribes such as the Kelabit people of Sarawak
Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...
state (and North Kalimantan, Indonesia), the Kadazandusun people and Murut people
The Murut, alternatively referred to as Tagol/Tahol, constitute an indigenous ethnic community comprising 29 distinct sub-ethnic groups dwelling within the northern inland territories of Borneo. Characterized by their rich cultural diversity, ...
of Sabah
Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
state all use the plant beads as ornament. In the Kadazandusun language, the plant is called ''dalai''. The Kayan of Borneo also use job's tears to decorate clothing and war dress.[
]
= Philippines
=
Job's tears () are otherwise known by many local names in the Philippines (e.g. in Visaya Islands).[ The beads strung together have sometimes been used as rosaries,][ or made into bead curtains][ (e.g. the ]Tboli people
The T'boli people () are an Austronesian indigenous people of South Cotabato in southern Mindanao in the Philippines. Ethnology
T'bolis currently reside on the mountain slopes on either side of the upper Alah Valley and the coastal area of ...
on Mindanao), or woven into baskets and other vessels.[
]
Americas
The plant was known as ''calandula'' in Spanish, and the hards seeds were strung together as beads or into rosaries in parts of New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
, e.g., Puerto Rico.[
In both the ]Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States, federally recognized Indian Tribe, ...
and the Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...
in Oklahoma, the beads of Job's tears are called "corn beads" or "Cherokee corn beads" and have been used for personal adornment.
Food
Throughout East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
, Job's tears are available in dried form and cooked as a grain. Job's tears grains are widely eaten as a cereal.[ The cultivated varieties are soft-shelled, and can be easily cooked into gruels, etc. Among the Zomi in Southeast Asia, miim festival (Job's tears festival) was held annually to pay tribute to the departed souls.
Some of the soft-shelled types are easily threshed, producing sweet kernels. The threshed (and polished][) "kernels" or ''ren'' () are used in ]traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
(see ''infra'').
The threshed grains are generally spherical, with a groove on one end, and polished white in color. In Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
unpolished grains are also sold, and marketed as ''yūki hatomugi'' (‘organic job's tears’).
In Cambodia
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
, where it is known as ''skuay'' (ស្គួយ), the seeds are not much used as a grain,[ but used as part of herbal medicine and as an ingredient in desserts. In ]Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
, it is often consumed in teas and other drinks, such as soy milk
Soy milk (or soymilk), also known as soya milk, is a plant-based milk produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein. Its original ...
.
It is also a minor cereal crop and fodder in Northeastern India.
The grains of Job's tear can be used the same way as rice. It can be eaten cooked or even raw, as it has a slightly sweet taste. Further, the grains can be used for the production of flour.
Job's tear grains can be processed in the same machine as rice. For the soft hulls, it is enough to press them over a sieve. The advantage of Job's tear over rice is that the grains do not need to be polished, as is the case with rice. Through this process, the rice loses its vitamins. This makes Job's tear a valuable food for undernourished populations in rural areas.
Beverages and soups
In Korean cuisine
Korean cuisine is the set of foods and culinary styles which are associated with Korean culture. This cuisine has evolved through centuries of social and political change. Originating from ancient Prehistoric Korea, agricultural and nomad ...
, a thick drink called '' yulmu cha'' (율무차, literally "Job's tears tea") is made from powdered Job's tears. A similar drink, called ''yi ren jiang '' (薏仁漿), also appears in Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...
, and is made by simmering whole polished Job's tears in water and sweetening the resulting thin, cloudy liquid with sugar. The grains are usually strained from the liquid but may also be consumed separately or together.
In Japan, the roasted kernels are brewed into , literally a "tea". This is drunk for medicinal value and not for enjoyment, as it does not suit the average consumer's taste, but a more palatable brew is obtained by roasting seeds that have been germinated, which reduces the distinctive strong odor.
In southern China, Job's tears are often used in ''tong sui
''Tong sui'' (; ) or ''tim tong'' is a general term for any sweet soup served as a dessert typically at the end of a meal in Chinese cuisine. ''Tong sui'' originated in the Lingnan region of China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hon ...
'' (糖水), a sweet dessert soup. One variety is called '' ching bo leung'' in Cantonese (), and is also known as '' sâm bổ lượng'' in Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes (): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and Piquant, spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more ...
. There is also a braised chicken dish ''yimidunji'' ().
Alcoholic beverages
In both Korea and China, distilled liquors are also made from the grain. One Korean liquor is called ''okroju'' (옥로주; hanja: 玉 露 酒), which is made from rice and Job's tears. The grains are also brewed into beers in northeast India and other parts of southeast Asia.
Traditional medicine
Job's tears are used with other herbs
Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnish (food), garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typi ...
in traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
or folk medicine
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treatin ...
.
The plant is noted in an ancient medical text ''Huangdi Neijing
' (), literally the ''Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor'' or ''Esoteric Scripture of the Yellow Emperor'', is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for mo ...
'' (5th–2nd centuries BCE) attributed to the legendary Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), but fails to be noticed in the standard traditional materia medica
''Materia medica'' ( lit.: 'medical material/substance') is a Latin term from the history of pharmacy for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medications). The term derives f ...
reference '' Bencao Gangmu'' (本草綱目)(16c.).
Cultivation requirements
Soil and climate requirement
It is generally grown in sunny, fertile, well-drained fields with sandy loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...
soil. Adlay likes mild, cool and humid climate. It does not adapt to hot and muggy climate, has low cold tolerance, and is very intolerant of drought. Black-shelled adlay is suitable for planting in areas with altitudes of 800 to 1,000 m; dwarf adlay varieties are suitable for planting in low altitude areas.
Seedbed requirements and sowing
Soaking seeds with disinfectant
A disinfectant is a chemical substance or compound used to inactivate or destroy microorganisms on inert surfaces. Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially resistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than ...
has a positive influence on germination
Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, ...
rate.
Planting can be done when the ground temperature is above 12 °C. And if it is not frost, sowing should be done as early as possible to lengthen the required days to emergence and days to anthesis
Anthesis is the period during which a flower is fully open and functional. It may also refer to the onset of that period.
The onset of anthesis is spectacular in some species. In ''Banksia'' species, for example, anthesis involves the extension ...
. Adlay sowing is divided into strip sowing and hole sowing. The strip sowing refers to the uniform sowing of seeds in trenches with a spacing of about 50 cm and a depth of 4–5 cm. Hole sowing refers to sowing seeds in holes 3–5 cm deep, with 3-4 seeds per hole.
Cultivation management
Control the number of seedlings per hole when the seedlings have 3–4 true leaves, and leave 2–3 well-grown plants in each hole.
Tillage
Tillage is the agriculture, agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical wikt:agitation#Noun, agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of manual labour, human-powered tilling methods using hand tools inc ...
at least 3 times during the whole crop growth. The 1st tillage is to be done when the seedlings are 5–10 cm high and needs to be cleaned of weeds to promote tillering. The second tillage is done when the seedlings are 15–20 cm high. The third plowing is done when the seedlings are 30 cm high, combined with fertilizer and soil cultivation to promote root growth and prevent collapse.
Production
Growth and development
It is an annual crop but it can be a perennial when allowed to develop ratoon. Adlay is propagated by seeds at the start of rain. The germination occurs as early as 7 days after sowing. It takes 5 to 5.5 months to flower and mature. The average height can reach over 90 cm at harvest. The application of N fertilizer can significantly improve the yield of adlay.
Drought is a major stress for adlay growth and development. The lack of moisture will cause impaired germination and poor establishment. During the growth and maturation stage, water deficits will reduce the leaf area index and lead to barrenness, which negatively affects photosynthesis and dry matter production.
Harvest and post-harvest operations
When nearly 80% of adlay grains turn brown, the panicle
In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...
will be harvested by cutting the stems and leaving three nodes above the ground. The harvest period varies with the different varieties and local environment.[Mendoza, A. J. A., Sabellano Jr, F. M., Baco, L. T., Nabua, W. C., & Pantallano, E. S. (2015). "VARIETAL PERFORMANCE OF ADLAI (Coix lacryma-jobi L.)". ''NMSCST Research Journal'', ''3''(1).] Because of the uneven height and grain distribution, the use of machines for harvesting is limited and harvesting has been done by hand in many regions in Southeastern Asia. Then the harvested panicles are threshed by hand or using a treadle thresher. For manual threshing, it is normally used when the harvested grains are at lower moisture content and easily shatter. Threshed grains are sun dried or placed in drying facilities where they utilize forced warm air to gradually reduce the moisture content to 14% suited to storage before the adlay moves to the milling
Milling may refer to:
* Milling (minting), forming narrow ridges around the edge of a coin
* Milling (grinding), breaking solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting in a mill
* Milling (machining), a process of using ro ...
process. The adlay can be consumed as grains and flour after being milled through corn and rice mill. The milling recovery is about 60% depending on the cultivars.
The yield is harvested in early October and is easily influenced by the weather. If there is dry and hot wind in the initial phase, the pollen loses its vitality, therefore can’t be pollinated. This leads to hollow seeds, which results in yield reduction in light cultivars and zero yield in heavy cultivars.
Early maturing varieties are sown in early March, middle maturing varieties are sown from late March to early April, and late maturing varieties are sown from late April to early May. Sowing should be early rather than late. If sowing is too late, it will affect the yield and even the seeds can not mature after autumn.
Nutritional value
The seeds of Job's tears are protein-rich and nutrient-dense. High in dietary fibre, zinc
Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...
and calcium
Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...
. They contain micronutrients like thiamine, riboflavin
Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a vitamin found in food and sold as a dietary supplement. It is essential to the formation of two major coenzymes, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. These coenzymes are involved in ...
, vitamin E
Vitamin E is a group of eight compounds related in molecular structure that includes four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. The tocopherols function as fat-soluble antioxidants which may help protect cell membranes from reactive oxygen speci ...
, and niacin. They cover 8 types of amino acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...
s for human consumption.
Starch and protein
Job's tears contain high amount of starch
Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...
(58%). The seeds are used as ingredients to make soup, porridge, flour and pastries. It is common to grind seeds into powder form to make pastries. Two major methods are used to isolate starch: alkaline steeping method and steeping with sodium metabisulfite (), an antioxidant and antimicrobial agent. Job's tears also contain edible protein (14.8%), which can be extracted through an alkaline extraction method and a salt extraction method.
Fatty acids
Job's tears contain mostly unsaturated fatty acid
In chemistry, in particular in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated and unsaturated compounds#Organic chemistry, saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an ...
s. The four main fatty acids, (oleic acid
Oleic acid is a fatty acid that occurs naturally in various animal and vegetable fats and oils. It is an odorless, colorless oil, although commercial samples may be yellowish due to the presence of impurities. In chemical terms, oleic acid is cl ...
, linoleic acid
Linoleic acid (LA) is an organic compound with the formula . Both alkene groups () are ''cis''. It is a fatty acid sometimes denoted 18:2 (n−6) or 18:2 ''cis''-9,12. A linoleate is a salt or ester of this acid.
Linoleic acid is a polyunsat ...
, palmitic acid
Palmitic acid (hexadecanoic acid in IUPAC nomenclature) is a fatty acid with a 16-carbon chain. It is the most common saturated fatty acid found in animals, plants and microorganisms.Gunstone, F. D., John L. Harwood, and Albert J. Dijkstra. The ...
, and stearic acid
Stearic acid ( , ) is a saturated fatty acid with an 18-carbon chain. The IUPAC name is octadecanoic acid. It is a soft waxy solid with the formula . The triglyceride derived from three molecules of stearic acid is called stearin. Stearic acid ...
) are extracted via three methods: solvent processes, supercritical fluid extraction and ultrasonic-assisted extraction.
Pests
Job's tear is less subject to attacks of locust
Locusts (derived from the Latin ''locusta'', locust or lobster) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they b ...
s than rice and corn.
Insect pests include:
*stem borers '' Sesamia inferens'' and '' Ostrinia furnacalis''
*rice skipper '' Pelopidas mathias'' (leaf feeder)
*thrip '' Chaetanaphothrips orchidii''
*aphid ''Rhopalosiphum maidis
''Rhopalosiphum maidis'', common names corn leaf aphid and corn aphid, is an insect, and a pest of maize and other crops. It has a nearly worldwide distribution and is typically found in agricultural fields, grasslands, and forest-grassland zone ...
''
*woolly aphid '' Ceratovacuna lanigera''
It is susceptible to leaf blight.
Gallery
An unripened head of Job's Tears.jpg, An unripened head of Job's Tears
Bhirgaudi Nepali.JPG, ''C. lacryma-jobi'' plant with flowers and fruit in Nepal
Yulmu (Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen).jpg, Job's tears grains
Yulmucha (Job's tears tea).jpg, '' Yulmu-cha'' (Job's tears tea) from Korea
Yulmu-bap.jpg, ''Yulmu-bap
BAP or bap may refer to:
Food
* Bap (bread), a bread roll
* Bap (rice dish), of Korea
People
* Bap Kennedy (1962–2016), Northern Irish singer-songwriter
* Bronze Age Pervert, Romanian-American right-wing writer and podcaster
Music
* BAP (Germa ...
'' (Job's tears rice) from Korea
Leiden University Library - Seikei Zusetsu vol. 20, page 011 - 薏苡 - Coix lacryma-jobi L., 1804.jpg, Illustration of ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' from the Japanese encyclopedia ''Seikei Zusetsu
The ''Seikei Zusetsu'' (Japanese language, Japanese: 成形図説) is a Japanese agricultural encyclopedia compiled from 1793 to 1804 at the order of Shimazu Shigehide, the ruler of Satsuma Province (now approximately Kagoshima Prefecture). The a ...
'' (1804)
Coix lacryma-jobi.jpg, ''C. lacryma-jobi'' seeds in a necklace prepared in the Zulu tradition
Coix lacryma-jobi MHNT.BOT.2016.12.1.jpg, ''Coix lacryma-jobi'' - MHNT
Explanatory notes
References
Bibliography
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*
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*
*
* Yanagita, Kunio (1950). "''Takaragai no koto'' 宝貝のこと". ''Bunka Okinawa'' 2 (7)
* —— (1953). "''Hito to zuzudama'' 人とズズダマ". ''Shizen to bunka'' (3)
*
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@ aozora
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@ aozora
External links
Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 5, Fruits, TK Lim, 2013
{{Taxonbar, from=Q827098
lacryma-jobi
Cereals
Decorative fruits and seeds
Plants described in 1753
Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine
Job (biblical figure)
Austronesian agriculture