Teff

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Teff

Teff or taf (Eragrostis tef, Amharic

Amharic language

Amharic is a Semitic languages spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara people. It is the second most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic language, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia....
?? ?eff, Tigrinya

Tigrinya language

Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrina, Tigri?a, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic languages spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in Tigray [Northern Ethiopia] and in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two official languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it also...
?? ?aff) is an annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
grass

Poaceae

Poaceae or Gramineae is a family in the Class Liliopsida of the Magnoliophyta. Plants of this family are usually called grasses; the shrub- or tree-like plants in this family are called bamboo ....
, a species of lovegrass

Lovegrass

The lovegrass genus of the Poaceae is the namesake of the tribe Eragrostideae. It would remain therein as long this group remains valid after revision of the Chloridoideae, even if other genera presently placed in the Eragrostideae are moved elsewhere....
native to the northern Ethiopian Highlands

Ethiopian Highlands

The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian Highlands form the largest continuous area of its altitude in the whole continent, with little of its surface falling below 1500 m , while the summits reach heights of up to 4550 m ....
of northeastern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
. It has an attractive nutrition profile, being high in dietary fiber

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, sometimes called "roughage", is the indigestible portion of plant foods that pushes food through the digestive system, absorbing water and easing defecation....
and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
and providing protein

Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
and calcium

Calcium

Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the earth's Crust ....
. It has a sour taste. It is similar to millet

Millet

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal Crop or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a scientific classification group, but rather a functional or agronomic one....
and quinoa

Quinoa

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot grown as a agriculture primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a Poaceae....
in cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
, but the seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
is much smaller.

Teff is an important food grain in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
and Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
, where it is used to make injera

Injera

Injera or taita is a pancake-like bread made out of teff flour. It is traditionally eaten in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia , Yemen, and by the Nuer people of Sudan....
, and less so in India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
and Australia

Australia

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Teff'

Start a new discussion about 'Teff'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Teff or taf (Eragrostis tef, Amharic

Amharic language

Tigrinya language

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
grass

Poaceae

Lovegrass

Ethiopian Highlands

Africa

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, sometimes called "roughage", is the indigestible portion of plant foods that pushes food through the digestive system, absorbing water and easing defecation....
and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
and providing protein

Protein

Calcium

Millet

Quinoa

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot grown as a agriculture primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a Poaceae....
in cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food....
, but the seed

Seed

Ethiopia

Eritrea

Injera

Injera or taita is a pancake-like bread made out of teff flour. It is traditionally eaten in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia , Yemen, and by the Nuer people of Sudan....
, and less so in India

India

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. (It is now raised in the USA, in Idaho in particular.) Because of its small seeds (less than 1 mm diameter), one can hold enough to sow a large area in one hand. This property makes teff particularly suited to a seminomadic lifestyle.

Common names include teff, lovegrass, annual bunch grass (English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
); ?eff/?éff (Amharic

Amharic language

Ejective consonant

In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspiration or tenuis consonants....
); ?affi/xaffi (oromo

Oromo language

Oromo, also known as Afaan borana Oromoo, Oromiffa , and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic languages language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic languages family....
, both representing the same sound); ?aff (Tigrinya

Tigrinya language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
). It is also written as ttheff, tteff, thaff, tcheff, and thaft. The word "tef" is connected by folk etymology to the EthioSemitic

Ethiopian Semitic languages

Ethiopian Semitic is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian, forms the Western branch of the South Semitic languages. Today, the name Ethiopian can be considered a misnomer, as the North languages are also found in Eritrea, with two of them being exclusively used there; however, the term came into use before Eritrea had...
root "?ff", which means "lost" (because of the small size of the grain).

Teff is believed to have originated in Ethiopia between 4000 BC and 1000 BC. Genetic evidence points to E. pilosa as the most likely wild ancestor. A 19th century identification of teff seeds from an ancient Egyptian site is now considered doubtful; the seeds in question (no longer available for study) are more likely of E. aegyptiaca, a common wild grass in Egypt.

It is adapted to environments ranging from drought stress to waterlogged soil conditions. Maximum teff production occurs at altitudes of 1800 to 2100 m, growing season rainfall of 450 to 550 mm, and a temperature range of 10 to 27 °C. Teff is day length sensitive and flowers best with 12 hours of daylight.

Cultivation and uses

A traditional food plant in Africa, this little-known grain has potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development and support sustainable landcare.

Teff has been widely cultivated and used in the countries of South Africa, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India and its colonies, and Australia. Teff accounts for about a quarter of total cereal production in Ethiopia. The grain has a high concentration of different nutrients, a very high calcium

Calcium

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. The name comes from the and . A Valency nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate minerals....
, iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a Group 8 element and period 4 element. Iron is lustrous and silvery in color....
, copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, aluminum, barium

Barium

Barium is a chemical element. It has the symbol Ba, and atomic number 56. Barium is a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal. It is never found in nature in its pure form due to its reactivity with Earth's atmosphere....
, and thiamin. A big advantage, the iron from teff is easily absorbed by the body. Teff is high in protein

Protein

Amino acid

In chemistry, an amino acid is a molecule containing both amine and carboxyl functional groups. These molecules are particularly important in biochemistry, where this term refers to alpha-amino acids with the general formula H2NCHRCOOH, where R is an organic substituent....
composition (including all 8 essential amino acids for humans) and has lysine

Lysine

Lysine is an a-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCH4NH2. This amino acid is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesize it....
levels higher than wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
or barley

Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
. Because of this variety, it stimulates the flora

Bacteria in the human body

The human flora are the microrganisms that constantly inhabit the human body. They include bacterium, fungi and archaea. Some of these organisms are known to perform tasks that are useful for the human host, while the majority have no known beneficial or harmful effect....
of the large intestine

Large intestine

The large intestine is the last part of the digestive system?the final stage of the alimentary canal?in vertebrate animals. Its function is to absorb water from the remaining indigestible food matter, and then to pass this useless feces from the body....
. Teff is high in carbohydrates and fiber

Fiber

Fiber or fibre is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of yarn. They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissue s together....
. It contains no gluten

Gluten

Gluten is a composite of the proteins gliadin and glutenin. These exist, conjoined with starch, in the endosperms of some Triticeae glutens cereal, notably wheat, rye, and barley....
, so it is appropriate for those with celiac disease. Consumers greatly prefer white teff to darker colored varieties.

Teff is a particularly nutritious grain. Its nutritional properties can be found .

It is also a rich source of other minerals including magnesium

Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, atomic weight 24.3050 and common oxidation number +2.Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the ninth most abundance of the chemical elements in the universe by mass....
, boron

Boron

Boron is a chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
, copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity....
, phosphorus

Phosphorus

Zinc

Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....
.

Teff

Cultivation and uses

External links