Baise Job's Tears

Baise Job's Tears

　　Job's Tears is a specialty of Baise. It is an annual plant belonging to the grass family, also known as Coix seed, ditch seed, six-grain seed, or bodhi bead.

　　Specialty Overview

　　Job's Tears can be used to cook rice, make porridge, bake pastries, or brew fine wine—all with excellent color, aroma, and taste. Since ancient times, it has been regarded as a rare delicacy. The seeds are both a medicinal crop and a food crop, rich in nutrients. The seeds contain 62% starch, 17% protein, 5% fat, as well as vitamin B1 and various amino acids. As a highly nutritious medicinal plant, it offers benefits such as nourishing the lungs, clearing heat, dispelling rheumatism, reducing swelling, promoting urination, and relieving diarrhea.

　　World-Famous

　　Due to its high nutritional value, Job's Tears is hailed as the “King of Grass Family Plants in the World.” In Europe, it is called the “Grain of Life and Health,” and in Japan, it has recently been listed as an anti-cancer food, which has significantly increased its value. Job's Tears is easily digested and absorbed, making it suitable for both nourishment and medical use, with gentle effects. Additionally, it contains the medicinally valuable coixol, as well as β- and γ-sitosterol—these special components are the secret behind its anti-cancer properties.

　　Pharmacological Effects

　　Job's Tears is one of China’s ancient grains that is both edible and medicinal. It has long been recognized by the public as an excellent food and a precious traditional Chinese medicine, widely used in medicinal diets and listed among imperial court cuisines. Its therapeutic and tonic effects are documented in ancient Chinese medicine, such as “treating muscle and bone spasms, immobility, chronic rheumatism, and regulating qi” (from “The Classic of Materia Medica”) and “Job's Tears strengthens the spleen, benefits the stomach, nourishes the lungs, clears heat, dispels wind and dampness. When decocted, it promotes urination and treats heat strangury; the juice of Job's Tears root mixed with wine is effective against jaundice” (from “Compendium of Materia Medica”). Today, both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine use Job's Tears to treat tuberculosis, lung heat cough, nephritis, tumors, enteritis with diarrhea, cardiac edema, pleurisy, chronic arthritis, muscle spasms, and a newly developed “Job's Tears injection” primarily used for cancer prevention and treatment.