Adlay

Adlay is a robust, maize-like grass growing one to two metres tall, with broad leaves and, in the cultivated form, grain enclosed in a soft, thin-walled bract. The wild Job's tears form carries a polished, bead-like bract that is grey to white and extremely hard, shaped like a teardrop with a natural hole through its length.

The edible grain is hulled and polished, producing plump, ivory kernels with a faint nutty, slightly chewy character reminiscent of barley. It is sold dried and hulled, often described as Chinese pearl barley, and as flour, puffed grain, extract and roasted tea. Despite the common name, it is unrelated to true barley.

Coix lacryma-jobi is believed to have originated in the tropical and subtropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, including India and Indochina. It was domesticated for food in the cultivated variety called ma-yuen, and it spread across southern China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. It is now grown or naturalised in many warm regions worldwide.

The English name Job's tears alludes to the biblical figure whose suffering was said to bring tears, and compares the drop-shaped bracts to teardrops. The name adlay, used in the Philippines, is reported to come from local Philippine languages.

Adlay has served as a food, a craft material and a medicine for at least several thousand years in Asia. The wild form was used as beads for necklaces and rosaries, a use that persists, while the soft-shelled cultivated form became a grain in hill regions where rice and millet were hard to grow. In the Philippines and parts of Northeast India, it is still grown by upland communities.

In China, the hulled kernel, known as yiyiren, appears in classical medical texts and has remained in the traditional pharmacopoeia, including a place in soups for summer. Japan and Korea developed their own uses, such as hatomugi tea and yulmu cha, and in modern times a range of adlay products has been marketed in East Asia as a health food.

The grain also attracted agricultural interest in Taiwan, where it is grown commercially, and in research programmes looking for resilient alternative crops. Because it is easily confused with barley, the name Chinese pearl barley is common in English-language food trade even though the plants are very different.

Hulled adlay is cooked like rice or barley, added to congee, soups and stews, or mixed with rice to give extra chewiness. It is simmered with sugar and other ingredients into sweet dessert soups in southern China and Taiwan, brewed as roasted tea in Japan and Korea, and milled into flour or puffed grain.

In traditional Chinese and other Asian medicine, it is used in decoctions for digestive and water-balance complaints. The hard-shelled wild type is made into beads for jewellery and rosaries.

Adlay is a cereal-like source of starch, protein and fibre, and its seed oils and compounds such as coixenolide have been examined in laboratory work. Small human studies and extracts have been explored for blood sugar and skin conditions, but the evidence is preliminary and not enough to support treatment claims. It can be a pleasant, chewy whole-grain alternative in meals.