Job's tears/dʒoʊbz/ (Coix lacryma-jobi), also known asadlay oradlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennialtropicalplant of the familyPoaceae (grass family). It is native toSoutheast Asia and introduced to Northern China and India in remote antiquity, and elsewhere cultivated in gardens as anannual. It has been naturalized in the southern United States and theNew World tropics. In its native environment it is grown at higherelevation areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's tears are also commonly sold asChinese pearl barley, though truebarley 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 makingprayer beads orrosaries, necklaces, and other objects. The cultivated varietyCoix lacryma-jobi var.ma-yuen is harvested as acereal crop, has a soft shell, and is used in traditional medicine in parts of Asia.
Job's tears may also be referred to under different spellings (Job's-tears,[2][3]Jobs-tears[4]). The crop is also known by other common names in English, such as adlay or adlay millet.[5][6] Other common names in English includecoix seed,[5][7]gromwell grass,[5] andtear grass.[5]
The seeds are known inHindi asVaijanti (वैजंती)[8],Baijanti (बैजंती) or Vaijayanti (वैजयंती), in Chinese asyìyǐ rén (薏苡仁),[9][7] whererén means "kernel", and also described in Latin assemen coicis orsemen coicis lachryma-jobi in pharmacopoeic literature.[7][10]
Widely distributed throughout theIndian subcontinent topeninsular Malaysia and Taiwan; naturalized elsewhere. Theinvolucres are ovoid, bony and glossy. It has hard shells and is used as beads in crafts.
South China to peninsular Malaysia and the Philippines.
The varietal name is eponymous after General Ma Yuen orMa Yuan (馬援) who according to legend learned of the plant's use when he was posted inCochin China (orTonkin, in what is now Vietnam), and brought the seeds back to China to be cultivated.[13][14][15] Theinvolucres are elliptical, striate and soft.
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.
Job's tears—along withCoix in —was formerly placed in theMaydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.[Sch 1] It has cylindrical, longer than broadinvolucres. It is widely used as beads for ornaments.[16]
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.[17]
The hardened "shells" covering the seeds are technically the fruit-case orinvolucre (hardened bract),[18] with the bract also referred to as "capsule-spathe"[19] or "sheathing bract" by some past botanical works.[2]
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 yellowstamens that pop out in-between, and there are one or two yarn-likestigmas drooping from the base.[20][21]
Job's tears – as withCoix in general – produces its own variety ofα-zeinprolamins. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.[Sch 2]
Job's tears is native to Southeast Asian countries, namely India, Myanmar, China, and Malaysia.[22] Residue on pottery from aNeolithic (lateYangshao Culture) site in north-central China[a] shows that Job's tears, together with non-nativebarley and other plants were used to brew beer as early as ca. 3000 BC.[b][23]
Job's tears were already introduced to Japan (and probably cultivated alongside rice) in the EarlyJōmon Period, corroborated by finds in Western Japan (Chūgoku region), e.g., from studies ofphytoliths in the Asanebana Shell Midden (朝寝鼻貝塚) (ca. 4000 BC) inOkayama Prefecture.[25][26] And further east in Japan, the plant has been found at theToro site, Shizuoka Prefecture dating to theYayoi Period.[27]
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.[28] A number of scholars support the view it has been in cultivation in India in the 2000–1000 BC period.[29][30] 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.[31] The cultivation of Job's tears spreads out to temperate areas in North and Northeast China.[citation needed] The shelled grains exported from China were erroneously declared through customs as "pearl barley",[32] and "Chinese pearl barley" remains an alternatecommon name so that the grains are sold under such label inAsian supermarkets, even thoughC. lacryma-jobi is not closely related tobarley (Hordeum vulgare).[33][34]
The name "Job's tears" is acalque ofArabicدموع أيوب (dumūʿ ʾAyyūb), the name used by Arab merchants who introduced the plant to Europe in theMiddle Ages. They used thepseudocarps formisbaha (prayer beads) and associated them with the account of the suffering ofJob (Ayyub) in theQuran, which is derived from the portrayal ofJob in theHebrew Bible'sBook of Job.[35][36]
The hard, white grains of Job's tears have historically been used asbeads to make necklaces and other objects. The seeds are naturally bored with holes without the need to artificially puncture them.[19]
Strands of Job's tears are used as Buddhistprayer 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.[37] They are also made into rosaries in countries such as the Philippines and Bolivia.[37]
In Japan, the grains growing wild are calledjuzudama (数珠玉) ‘Buddhist rosary beads’), and children have made playthings out of them by stringing them into necklaces.[38] However,juzu-dama was a corruption ofzuzu-dama according to folkloristKunio Yanagita.[38] A type of Buddhist rosary calledirataka no juzu, which were hand-made by theyamabushi ascetics practicingshugendō training, purportedly used a large-grain type known asoni-juzudama (鬼数珠玉) ‘oni(ogre) rosary beads’.[39][40] Although this was published as a separate variety,C. lacryma jobi var.maximaMakino,[39] it is now regarded as synonymous toC. lacryma jobi var.lacryma-jobi according to taxonomical databases (World Checklist of Selected Plant Families).[41]
It was contended by Edo Period scholarOno Ranzan that the soft-shelled edible type calledshikoku-mugi was not introduced into Japan until theKyōho era (1716–1736), as opposed to a hard-shelled edible type calledchōsen-mugi (lit. ‘Korean wheat’) which needed to be beaten in order to crack and thresh them.[42][c] This type has been published as a separate species,C. agrestis in the past,[44] but this is now recognized also as a synonym ofC. lacryma jobi var.lacryma-jobi.[45][d] Thus Japanese consumption of the crop attested in pre-Kyōho literature presumably used this hard-shelled type in the recipe.[46][e]
Yanagita contended that the use of the beads predated the introduction of Buddhism into Japan (552/538 CE).[f][38] And the plant has not only been found at sites dating to approximately this period at theKuroimine Site,[47] but in Jomon period sites dating to several millennia BC.[25]
Yanagita in his Ocean Road hypothesis argues that the pearly glistening seeds were regarded as simulating or substituting forcowrie 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.[48][g]
Later scholars have pursued the validity of the thesis. Yanagita had reproduced a distribution map of the usage of ornamental cowries throughout Asia (compiled byJ. Wilfrid Jackson),[49] and Japanese ethnologistKeiji Iwata [ja] alluded to a need for a distribution map of ornamental Job's tears, for making comparison therewith.[50][51]
TheAkha people and theKaren people 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.[h][52] 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.[53][i] The beads are used only on the jackets of married women among the Karen, and the oblong seeds are exclusively selected,[55] some example has been shown from the Karen inChiang Rai Province of Thailand.[53]
Strands of job's tears necklaces have also been collected from Chiang Rai Province, Thailand[56] and it is known the Karen people string the beads into necklaces,[54] such necklaces in use also in the formerKarenni States (currentKayah State of Burma), with the crop being known by the namecheik (var.kyeik,kayeik,kyeit) inBurmese.[57][55] Job's tears necklace has been collected also fromYunnan Province, China,[56] which has a population of Akha-Hani people and other minorities, but theWa people of Yunnan also used the plant seeds (tɛ kao; lit. ‘fruit-Coix’) sewn onto fabrics and bags, etc.[58]
The Wa people and other minorities like theTaungyo ethnic group use the beads in apparel inShan State, Myanmar.[59]
Job's tears (Tagalog:tigbí) are otherwise known by many local names in the Philippines (e.g.Bikol:adlái inVisaya Islands).[62][63] The beads strung together have sometimes been used asrosaries,[62][37] or made into bead curtains[62] (e.g. theTboli people on Mindanao[64]), or woven into baskets and other vessels.[62]
The plant was known ascalandula in Spanish, and the hards seeds were strung together as beads or into rosaries in parts ofNew Spain, e.g., Puerto Rico.[65][66]
ThroughoutEast Asia, Job's tears are available in dried form and cooked as a grain. Job's tears grains are widely eaten as a cereal.[67] The cultivated varieties are soft-shelled, and can be easily cooked intogruels, etc.[68] Among the Zomi in Southeast Asia, miim festival (Job's tears festival) was held annually to pay tribute to the departed souls.[69]
The threshed grains are generally spherical, with a groove on one end, and polished white in color.[73] InJapan unpolished grains are also sold, and marketed asyūki hatomugi (‘organic job's tears’).[73]
InCambodia, where it is known asskuay (ស្គួយ), the seeds are not much used as a grain,[74] but used as part of herbal medicine and as an ingredient in desserts. InThailand, it is often consumed in teas and other drinks, such assoy milk.[citation needed]
It is also a minor cereal crop and fodder in Northeastern India.[75]
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.[17]
InKorean cuisine, a thick drink calledyulmu cha (율무차, literally "Job's tears tea") is made from powdered Job's tears.[73] A similar drink, calledyi ren jiang (薏仁漿), also appears inChinese 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.[citation needed]
In Japan, the roasted kernels are brewed intohatomugi cha (ハトムギ茶), literally a "tea".[76] 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.[76][k]
In both Korea and China,distilled liquors are also made from the grain. OneKorean liquor is calledokroju (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.[29]
The plant is noted in an ancient medical textHuangdi Neijing (5th–2nd centuries BCE) attributed to the legendary Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), but fails to be noticed in the standard traditionalmateria medica referenceBencao Gangmu (本草綱目)(16c.).[10]
It is generally grown in sunny, fertile, well-drained fields with sandyloam soil.[81] 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.[81]
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 toanthesis.[83] 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.[84]
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 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.[84]
It is an annual crop but it can be a perennial when allowed to developratoon. 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.[85] The application of N fertilizer can significantly improve the yield of adlay.[86]
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,[87] which negatively affects photosynthesis and dry matter production.
When nearly 80% of adlay grains turn brown, thepanicle 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.[88] 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.[89] Then the harvested panicles arethreshed by hand or using atreadle thresher. Formanual 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%[90] suited to storage before the adlay moves to themilling process. The adlay can be consumed as grains and flour after being milled through corn and rice mill. The milling recovery is about 60%[88] 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.[91]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.[17]
Job's tears contain high amount ofstarch (58%).[92] 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 withsodium metabisulfite (Na2S2O5), 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.[92]
^The finds occurred in aBanpo IVtype stratum which was dated to 3400–2900 BC, which the scholars place in the late Yangshao period (Yangshao Period defined as 5000–2900 BC).
^Ranzan actually gave this type undertōmugi aliaschōsen-mugi, but this is confusing, since later writers such as Mizumasa Furukawa (1928–1977) wrote thatshikoku-mugi andtōmugi were the same.[43]
^Researcher Seiji Koyama identifies thechōsen-mugi (‘Korean wheat’) asC. lacryma jobi var.koreana,[10] but that variety name is not registered at theWCSPF.[12]
^Koyama gives several examples, including theNōgyō zensho [ja] (Genroku 10 or1697), which states Job's tears (yokui) can be eaten as gruel, or as blended grain incooked rice, or as dumplings (dango).[46] The recipe for theokoshi-gome [ja] snack in theRyōri monogatari [ja] (Kaei 20,1643) does not use rice but roasted cracked grains of job's tears (yokuinin) instead, mixed with sugar and molded into shape.[46]
^§3: "後に東北のイタコの数珠や、アイヌの頸飾くびかざりなどを見るようになって、ジュズとは呼びながらも我々の真似ていたのは、もっと古風な、また国風なものだったことに心づいたことである。 Later [as an adult] I saw the bead-necklaces of theitako shamanesses and theAinu necklaces, and realized that what we were pretend-playing with [as children] were, even though we called themjuzu [like Buddhist rosaries], much older and more native to the land."
^He posited that the name of the seeds (variant nametsushi-dama ortsushi-tama) was rooted in the ancient wordtsushiya whose precise meaning he deduced to be 'cowries'. However this was guesswork "founded on really the faintest clue 誠に幽な暗示の上に築かれている", and he admitted there is no attestation totsushiya or words similar used in the sense of ‘jewel shells’in any ancient texts.
^The Akha people are also found inYunnan Province in China, but Ochiai (2010) only speaks of usage in "the south side of China" (p. 6), and exhibits a photo of Yunnan Province bead necklace on the map (pp. 4–5) without identifying the ethnic group.
^It has been noted that the Akha use cowries shells as ornaments also, even though they are a mountainous people. The shells fromBangkok were being obtained throughOverseas Chinese middlemen.[54]
^Although this stringent distinction may not be followed in literature, for example,yi yi ren may be used as the term for the fruit overall rather than the polished endosperm.[9]
^It is unclear what is meant by the coffee-like drink brewed from roasted seeds that is distinguished from the "tea" which some sources describe but do not specify by any name.[77] Thehatomugi kōhī ("jobs tears coffee") apparently refers to coffee dripped with hatomugi tea instead of plain hot water.
^p.331, "Maize andTripsacum 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)."
^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)."
^abTakahashi, Mamoru 高橋護 (1999). "Kōkogaku to puranto-opāru bunseki no riyō 考古学とプラント・オパール分析の利用 [Archaeology and the use of phytolith analysis]",Sudien ato / hatake ato wo meguru shizen kagaku--sono kenshō to saibai shokubutsu 水田跡・畑跡をめぐる自然科学―その検証と栽培植物- [Natural sciences concerning rice paddy sites/field sites: assessment and planted flora]. The 9th Congress of the Higashi nihono no suiden ato wo kangaeru kai.年[24]
^abNesbitt, Mark (2012) [2005]."Grains". In Prance, Ghillean; Nesbitt, Mark (eds.).The Cultural History of Plants. Routledge. pp. 53,343–344.ISBN9781135958114.
^Furukawa, Mizumasa (1963).Hatomugi no kōyō: gan to biyō to chōju ni kikuハトムギの効用—ガンと美容と長寿にきく (in Japanese). Rokugatsusha. pp. 30–45. apudKoyama (1996), p. 67.
^abMendoza, 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).
Corke, H; Huang, Y; Li, JS (2015)."Coix: overview". In Wrigley, Colin W (ed.).Encyclopedia of Food Grains (2 ed.). Academic Press. pp. 184–189.ISBN9780123947864.
Iwata, Keiji[in Japanese] (1991).Sōmokuchūgyo no jinruigaku草木虫魚の人類学 [Anthropology of forbs, trees, bugs, fish] (in Japanese).Kodansha.
Lim, Tong Kwee (2013)."Coix lacryma-jobi".Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 5. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 243–261.ISBN9789400756533.
Koyama, Seiji (1996),"Yokuinin no chiyūshohō"薏苡仁の治疣処方 [Kampo Formulas Containing Coicis Semen that are Effective in the Treatment of Verrucae](PDF),日本東洋医学雑誌 (in Japanese),47 (1):63–69[permanent dead link]
Ochiai, Yukino (2002), "Domestication and cultivation of edible Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi subsp. ma-yuen) under the influence of vegeculture", in Yoshida, S; Mathews, P J (eds.),Vegeculture in Eastern Asia and Oceania, Suita City, Osaka: The Japan Center for Area Studies, National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Expo Park, pp. 59–75,ISBN9784901838009
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