Job's tears/dʒoʊbz/ (Coix lacryma-jobi), also known as adlay or adlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennial
tropicalplant of the family
Poaceae (grass family). It is native to
Southeast Asia 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 tropics. In its native environment it is grown at higher
elevation areas where rice and corn do not grow well. Job's tears are also commonly sold as Chinese pearl barley, though true
barley 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 crop, has a soft shell, and is used medicinally in parts of Asia.
Nomenclature
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 include coix seed,[5][7]gromwell grass,[5] and tear grass.[5]
The seeds are known in Chinese as yìyǐ rén (薏苡仁),[8][7] where rén means "kernel", and also described in Latin as semen coicis or semen coicis lachryma-jobi in pharmacopoeic literature.[7][9]
Widely distributed throughout the
Indian subcontinent to
peninsular Malaysia and Taiwan; naturalized elsewhere. The
involucres 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 or
Ma Yuan (馬援) who according to legend learned of the plant's use when he was posted in
Cochin China (or
Tonkin, in what is now Vietnam), and brought the seeds back to China to be cultivated.[12][13][14] The
involucres 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 with Coix in —was formerly placed in the
Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.[Sch 1] It has cylindrical, longer than broad
involucres. It is widely used as beads for ornaments.[15]
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.[16]
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The hardened "shells" covering the seeds are technically the fruit-case or
involucre (hardened bract),[17] with the bract also referred to as "capsule-spathe"[18] 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 yellow
stamens that pop out in-between, and there are one or two yarn-like female racemes drooping from the base.[19][20]
Proteins
Job's tears - as with Coix in general - produces its own variety of
α-zeinprolamins. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.[Sch 2]
History
Job's tears is native to Southeast Asian countries, namely India, Myanmar, China, and Malaysia.[21] Residue on pottery from a
Neolithic (late
Yangshao Culture) site in north-central China[a] shows that Job's tears, together with non-native
barley and other plants were used to brew beer as early as ca. 3000 BC.[b][22]
Job's tears were already introduced to Japan (and probably cultivated alongside rice) in the Early
Jōmon Period, corroborated by finds in Western Japan (
Chūgoku region), e.g., from studies of
phytoliths in the Asanebana Shell Midden (朝寝鼻貝塚) (ca. 4000 BC) in
Okayama Prefecture.[24][25] And further east in Japan, the plant has been found at the
Toro site, Shizuoka Prefecture dating to the
Yayoi Period.[26]
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.[27] A number of scholars support the view it has been in cultivation in India in the 2000–1000 BC period.[28][29] 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.[30] 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",[31] and "Chinese pearl barley" remains an alternate
common name so that the grains are sold under such label in
Asian supermarkets, even though C. lacryma-jobi is not closely related to
barley (Hordeum vulgare).[32][33]
Uses
Crafts
The hard, white grains of Job's tears have historically been used as
beads to make necklaces and other objects. The seeds are naturally bored with holes without the need to artificially puncture them.[18]
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.[34] They are also made into rosaries in countries such as the Philippines and Bolivia.[34]
East Asia
Japan
In Japan, the grains growing wild are called juzudama (数珠玉) ‘Buddhist rosary beads’), and children have made playthings out of them by stringing them into necklaces.[35] However, juzu-dama was a corruption of zuzu-dama according to folklorist
Kunio Yanagita.[35] A type of Buddhist rosary called irataka no juzu, which were hand-made by the yamabushi ascetics practicing shugendō training, purportedly used a large-grain type known as oni-juzudama (鬼数珠玉) ‘
oni(ogre) rosary beads’.[36][37] Although this was published as a separate variety, C. lacryma jobi var. maximaMakino,[36] it is now regarded as synonymous to C. lacryma jobi var. lacryma-jobi according to taxonomical databases (World Checklist of Selected Plant Families).[38]
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.[39][c] This type has been published as a separate species, C. agrestis in the past,[41] but this is now recognized also as a synonym of C. lacryma jobi var. lacryma-jobi.[42][d] Thus Japanese consumption of the crop attested in pre-Kyōho literature presumably used this hard-shelled type in the recipe.[43][e]
Yanagita contended that the use of the beads predated the introduction of Buddhism into Japan (552/538 CE).[f][35] And the plant has not only been found at sites dating to approximately this period at the
Kuroimine Site,[44] but in Jomon period sites dating to several millennia BC.[24]
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.[45][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 by
J. Wilfrid Jackson),[46] and Japanese ethnologist
Keiji Iwata [
ja] alluded to a need for a distribution map of ornamental Job's tears, for making comparison therewith.[47][48]
Mainland Southeast Asia
Thailand and Myanmar
The
Akha people and the
Karen 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][49] 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.[50][i] The beads are used only on the jackets of married women among the Karen, and the oblong seeds are exclusively selected,[52] some example has been shown from the Karen in
Chiang Rai Province of Thailand.[50]
Strands of job's tears necklaces have also been collected from Chiang Rai Province, Thailand[53] and it is known the Karen people string the beads into necklaces,[51] 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.[54][52] Job's tears necklace has been collected also from
Yunnan Province, China,[53] which has a population of Akha-
Hani people and other minorities, but the
Wa people of Yunnan also used the plant seeds (tɛ kao; lit. ‘fruit-Coix’) sewn onto fabrics and bags, etc.[55]
The Wa people and other minorities like the
Taungyo ethnic group use the beads in apparel in
Shan State, Myanmar.[56]
Insular Southeast Asia
Borneo
In Northern Borneo Malay (
Dayak group) ethnic tribes such as the
Kelabit people of
Sarawak state (and North Kalimantan, Indonesia), the
Dusun people and
Murut people of
Sabah state all use the plant beads as ornament.[51] The
Kayan of Borneo also use job's tears to decorate clothing and war dress.[57]
Philippines
Job's tears (
Tagalog: tigbí) are otherwise known by many local names in the Philippines (e.g.
Bikol: adlái in
Visaya Islands).[58][59] The beads strung together have sometimes been used as
rosaries,[58][34] or made into bead curtains[58] (e.g. the
Tboli people on Mindanao[60]), or woven into baskets and other vessels.[58]
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, e.g., Puerto Rico.[61][62]
Throughout
East Asia, Job's tears are available in dried form and cooked as a grain. Job's tears grains are widely eaten as a cereal.[63] The cultivated varieties are soft-shelled, and can be easily cooked into
gruels, etc.[64] Among the Zomi in Southeast Asia, miim festival (Job's tears festival) was held annually to pay tribute to the departed souls.[65]
The threshed grains are generally spherical, with a groove on one end, and polished white in color.[69] In
Japan unpolished grains are also sold, and marketed as yūki hatomugi (‘organic job's tears’).[69]
In
Cambodia, where it is known as skuay (ស្គួយ), the seeds are not much used as a grain,[70] but used as part of herbal medicine and as an ingredient in desserts. In
Thailand, it is often consumed in teas and other drinks, such as
soy milk.[citation needed]
It is also a minor cereal crop and fodder in Northeastern India.[71]
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.[16]
Beverages and soups
In
Korean cuisine, a thick drink called yulmu cha (율무차, literally "Job's tears tea") is made from powdered Job's tears.[69] A similar drink, called yi ren jiang (薏仁漿), also appears in
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.[citation needed]
In Japan, the roasted kernels are brewed into hatomugi cha (ハトムギ茶), literally a "tea".[72] 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.[72][k]
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.[28]
The plant is noted in an ancient medical text Huangdi Neijing (5th–2nd centuries BCE) attributed to the legendary Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), but fails to be noticed in the standard traditional
materia medica reference Bencao Gangmu (本草綱目)(16c.).[9]
Cultivation requirements
Soil and climate requirement
It is generally grown in sunny, fertile, well-drained fields with sandy
loam soil.[77] 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.[77]
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.[79] 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.[80]
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 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 3rd plowing is done when the seedlings are 30 cm high, combined with fertilizer and soil cultivation to promote root growth and prevent collapse.[80]
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.[81] The application of N fertilizer can significantly improve the yield of adlay.[82]
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,[83] which negatively affects photosynthesis and dry matter production.
Harvest and post-harvest operations
When nearly 80% of adlay grains turn brown, the
panicle 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.[84] 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.[85] 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%[86] suited to storage before the adlay moves to the
milling process. The adlay can be consumed as grains and flour after being milled through corn and rice mill. The milling recovery is about 60%[84] 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.[87]
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.[16]
Job's tears contain high amount of
starch (58%).[88] 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 (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.[88]
^The finds occurred in a
Banpo IV
type 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 under tōmugi alias chōsen-mugi, but this is confusing, since later writers such as Mizumasa Furukawa (1928–1977) wrote that shikoku-mugi and tōmugi were the same.[40]
^Researcher Seiji Koyama identifies the chōsen-mugi (‘Korean wheat’) as C. lacryma jobi var. koreana,[9] but that variety name is not registered at the
WCSPF.[11]
^Koyama gives several examples, including the
Nōgyō zensho [
ja] (Genroku 10 or
1697), which states Job's tears (yokui) can be eaten as gruel, or as blended grain in
cooked rice, or as dumplings (
dango).[43] The recipe for the
okoshi-gome [
ja] snack in the
Ryōri 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.[43]
^§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 the itako shamanesses and the
Ainu necklaces, and realized that what we were pretend-playing with [as children] were, even though we called them juzu [like Buddhist rosaries], much older and more native to the land."
^He posited that the name of the seeds (variant name tsushi-dama or tsushi-tama) was rooted in the ancient word tsushiya 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 to tsushiya or words similar used in the sense of ‘jewel shells’in any ancient texts.
^The Akha people are also found in
Yunnan 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 from
Bangkok were being obtained through
Overseas Chinese middlemen.[51]
^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.[8]
^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.[73] The hatomugi kōhī ("jobs tears coffee") apparently refers to coffee dripped with hatomugi tea instead of plain hot water.
^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)."
^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)."
^Taylor, G.D. (Autumn 1953). "Some crop distributions by tribes in upland Southeast Asia". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 9 (3). University of New Mexico: 296–308.
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