Pokok Jelai

Pokok Jelai
Scientific Name	Coix lacryma jobi
Family	Poaceae
Synonyms	Coix agrestis Lour., Coix arundinacea Lam, Coix exaltata Jacq., Coix lacryma L., Semen coicis
Common Name	Job’s Tear, Coixseed, Tear Grass , Hato Mugi
Plant Material of Interest	Widely cultivated as a cereal in India. Use as weed and necklace. Chinese use the grain in soups and broths

{slider= Geographical & Distribution}

Native to South East Asia.

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{slider=General Appearance}

The herb 1-2 m tall, the leaf blades 20-50 cm long, 1-5 cm broad. Spikelets terminal, and in the upper axils, unisexual, staminate spikelets two-flowered, in twos or threes on the continuous rachis; pistillate spikelets three together, one fertile, and two sterile; glumes of the fertile spikelet several-nerved, all enclosed finally in a bony beadlike involucre, the grain, white to bluish white, or black,  6-12 mm long.

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{slider=Chemical Contents}

Lactams including coixspirolactam A, coixspirolactam B and coixspirolactam C, coixlactam, methyl dioxindole-3-acetate (Lee MY. et al 2008). Grains: Phenolic content 7.33-8.18 mgGAE/g, coixenolide 2.56-2.88 µg/g of whole grain and coixenolide 0.02-0.053 ug/g in degermed flours. Chemical composition of whole grain were protein 13-16 %, lipid 4.6-5.5%, ash 1.2- 1.7 % ((Chaisiricharoenkul J. 2011). Protein of the seed: 20 % of protein contain albumins, globulins, prolamins (coixin) and residual proteins (Laura M., 1990). Polysaccharides called coixans.

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{slider=Traditional Uses}

Headache and migrain: all the plants are cleaned, chopped and soak in hot water. Taking bath with the warm water. To treat yellow fever: Boil 15 gm of root until the water half volume. Filter and drink 2 times. To treat kidney stone: 5 gm of the leaves as tea an drink. Reumatoid: Boil 30 gm of the ripe fruit until the volume left quater, filter before drink. The water also can be used for skin, treatment of appendics and diarhea. In Chinese medicine plant used as anti tumor, analgesic, decrease blood sugar and to treat fever.

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{slider=Pharmacology}

Antioxidant Roasted pearl barley was extracted with hot water at a rate of 12.5 %. The antioxidative fraction was eluted from the Diaion HP2MG column with 70 % ethanol. Rats were fed a diet containing 5g/kg pearl barley extract for 14 days exhibited no significant reduction in the formation of thiobarbituric acid –reactive substances in the serum. Compared to controls, liver homogenates from rats fed pearl barley extract showed significant lower susceptibility to lipid peroxidation (induced by 2,2’-azobis (2-amidinopropane)hydrochloride). The results demonstrate that diet containing pearl barley extract increases oxidation resistance in ex-vivo rat livers (sato K & T. Osawa 2010).

Analgesic Effects

The analgesic effect of Semen coicis was observed with sequential trial in 26 cases of severe functional dysmenorrhea. The results showed that the markely effective rate was 90 %, which was much better than that of the control group treated by indomethacin plus subcuteous injection of atropine (p≤ 0.01) Zhang et al 2000.

Other:

Extract from seed of Semen coicis induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells in a concentration and time dependent manner, and the expression of caspase-8 was elevated and prolonged. However did not significantly influence the expression of Bcl-2.(Lu Y, et al., 2011).

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{slider=Reference}

Laura M. M. Ottoboni, Adilson L. M. Luiza. N. Targon, A. Crozier & P. Arruda (1990). Characterization of the Storage Protein in Seed of Coix lacryma-jobi var. Adlay J. Agric Food Chem, 38, 631-635.

Lee M.Y., H.Y. Lin, F. Cheng, W. Chiang, Y.H. Kuo (2008). Isolation and characterization of new lactam compounds that inhibit lung and colon cancer from adlay(Coix lachryma-jobi L. Var. mayuen Stapf) bran. Food and Chemical Toxicology Vol 46 (6), Pg 1933-1939.

Lu Y., BY Zhang, Zhuo-Xia Jia, W.J. Wu, Z.Q. Lu (2011). Hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell apoptosis and caspase-8 and Bcl-2 expression induced by injectable seed extract of Coix lacryma-jobi. Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Disease International . (10) (3) Pg 303-307.

Sato K. & T. Osawa (2010). Dietary Supplementation with Perl Barley (Adlay, Coix lacryma-jobi L. Var Ma-yuen Stapf)extract increases Oxidation Resistance in the liver of Rats ex vivo. Food Sci Technol Res 16 (6), Pg 613-616.

Zhang Y., Hou G., Yue Y. (2000) The analgesic action of semen coicis on severe functional dysmenorrhea-a sequential trial observation J. Tradit Chin Med ; 20 (4) Pg 293-296.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop%20/duke_energy/Coix_lacryma-jobi.html#Cultivatio
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