JobThe Book of Job is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his theological discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, and finally a response from God...
's Tears (
Coix lacryma-jobi),
Coixseed,
adlay, or
adlai, is a tall grain-bearing tropical
plantPlants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The scientific study of plants, known as botany, has identified about 350,000 extant species of plants, defined as seed plants,...
of the family
PoaceaePoaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the flowering plants. Plants of this family are usually called grasses, or, to distinguish them from other graminoids, true grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo...
(grass family) native to
East AsiaEast Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about , or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang,...
and peninsular
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
but elsewhere cultivated in gardens as an
annualAn annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...
. It has been naturalized in the southern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
tropics. In its native environment it is grown in higher areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's Tears is also commonly, but misleadingly sold as
Chinese pearl barley in
Asian supermarketAn Asian supermarket, sometimes called an "Oriental supermarket", is a grocery store in non-Asian countries that stock items imported from the many countries in East and Southeast Asia...
s, despite the fact that
C. lacryma-jobi are not of the same genus as
barleyBarley is a cereal grain derived from the annual grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food. It is used in soups, stews and barley bread in various countries, such as Scotland and in Africa...
(
Hordeum vulgare).
Two varieties of the species are grown.
Coix lacryma-jobi var.
lacryma-jobi has hard shelled pseudocarps which are very hard, pearly white, oval structures used as beads for making
rosariesThe Rosary or "garland of roses" is a popular and traditional Roman Catholic devotion. The term denotes both a set of prayer beads and the devotional prayer itself, which combines vocal prayer and meditation...
, necklaces, and other objects.
Coix lacryma-jobi var.
ma-yuen is harvested as a
cerealCereals, grains or cereal grains, {as a collective} are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their fruit seeds - the endocarp, germ and bran...
crop and is used medicinally in parts of Asia.
Etymology
Job's Tears are known by many different names across the world:
- Chinese
Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: The plants are called chuān gǔ (川谷) or yì yǐ (薏苡). The grains are called yì rén (薏仁).
- Vietnamese
Vietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national and official language of Vietnam...
: bo bo, hột bo bo (hột meaning "seed"), cườm gạo, or ý dĩ (derived from the Chinese 薏苡)
- Japanese
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...
: juzudama (数珠玉 or ジュズダマ) or hatomugi (鳩麦 or ハトムギ)
- Korean
Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...
: yulmu (율무) in http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Coix.html
- Malay
Malay is a group of languages closely related to each other to the point of mutual intelligibility but that linguists consider to be separate languages. They are grouped into a group called "Local Malay", part of a larger group called "Malayan" within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the...
: jali
They are sometimes also referred to as Coix Seeds.
Uses
Throughout East Asia, Job's Tears are available in dried form and cooked as a grain. The grains are generally spherical, with a groove on one end, and polished white in color, though in Japan unpolished
yuuki hatomugi, which is unpolished and brown in color, is also available.
In Korea, a thick drink called
yulmu cha (율무차, literally "Job's tears tea") is made from powdered Job's tears. A similar drink, called
yì mí shǔi (薏米水), also appears in
Chinese cuisineChinese cuisine originated in China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world — from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa. In recent years, connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine have also sprouted in Eastern Europe and South Asia...
, 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 both Korea and China,
distilled liquorsA distilled beverage, liquor, or spirits is a drinkable liquid containing ethanol that is produced by means of distilling fermented grain, fruit, or vegetables.This excludes undistilled fermented beverages such as beer and wine, and often the term hard liquor is used to contrast distilled beverages...
are also made from the grain. One such example is the South Korean liquor called
okroju (hanja: 玉露酒), which is made from rice and Job's tears. In
JapanThe modern term "Japanese cuisine" means traditional-style Japanese food, similar to what already existed before the end of national seclusion in 1868...
, an aged
vinegarVinegar is an acidic liquid processed from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. It also may come in a diluted form. The acetic acid concentration typically ranges from 4 to 8 percent by volume for table vinegar and higher concentrations for pickling...
is made from the grain.
http://www.naturalimport.com/hato_mugi_vinegar1?b=1
In southern Vietnam, a sweet, cold soup called
sâm bổ lượng has Job's Tears as one of its ingredients. This dish derives from the southern Chinese
tong suiTong sui, also known as tian tang, is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. Tong sui are a Cantonese specialty and are rarely found in other regional cuisines of China...
called
qīng bǔ liáng (清補涼; Cantonese: ching1 bou2 leung4).
In Thailand, it is often consumed in teas and other drinks, such as
soy milkSoy milk and sometimes referred to as soy drink/beverage is a beverage made from soybeans. A stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein, it is produced by soaking dry soybeans and grinding them with water...
.
It is also used alongside other
herbsChinese Herbology or 中药, is the common name for the subject of Chinese materia medica . It includes the basic theory of Chinese materia medica, "crude medicine," "prepared drug in slices" and traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations' source, collection and preparation,...
in
traditional Chinese medicineTraditional Chinese Medicine, also known as TCM , includes a range of traditional medical practices originating in China. Although well accepted in the mainstream of medical care throughout East Asia, it is considered an alternative medical system in much of the western world.TCM practices include...
.
External links