Coix lacryma-jobi L. - Coix chinensis Tod.; Coix ma-yuen Roman. - Poaceae \\
薏苡 yi yi (chin.), Job's tears, **Hiobsträne**, Hiobstränengras 

Annual grass, 0.90-1.50m high, native to tropical Asia; leaves linear, 10-45cm long by 2.5-5cm wide, with broad cordate base and acuminate tip, smooth on both surfaces; racemes 2.5-6cm long, nodding or drooping from long peduncles; male spikelets 10-13mm long; lower involucral glume 10mm long, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, concave, with anarrow wing with many branched green veins; upper involucral glume similar to the lower but not winged; lower floral glume oblong-lanceolate, hyaline, faintly 3-5-nerved; upper floral glume similar; anthers 5mm long, orange; fruit 6-10mm long, smooth, broad ovoid to globose, blueish grey. \\

Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen, 薏米 yi mi (chin.): "This form with softer utricles is used as a food grain and for medicine. It also provides good forage." [[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=250071207]] 

"Besides the use for ornamental purposes, Job's tears grains are useful as a source of food (cereals) and folk medicine... It is also used alongside other herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. Particularly Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen has been used in the traditional Chinese medicine to invigorate the spleen function and promote urination, alleviate arthritis, arrest diarrhea, remove heat and facilitate the drainage of pus." 
[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job%27s_Tears]]

"Adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf.) has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine for dysfunction of the endocrine system. However, there have been few studies on the effects of adlay seed on the endocrine system. In the present study, both the in vivo and in vitro effects of methanolic extracts of adlay hull (AHM) on progesterone synthesis were studied... In the in vivo study, AHM decreased plasma progesterone and estradiol levels after an intravenous injection of AHM (2 mg/ml/kg)... These results suggest that AHM decreased the production of progesterone via mechanisms involving the inhibition of the cAMP pathway, enzyme activities, and the protein expressions of P450scc and StAR in rat GCs." \\
[Effects of adlay (Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen Stapf.) hull extracts on the secretion of progesterone and estradiol in vivo and in vitro., Hsia, S.M., Yeh, C.L., Kuo, Y.H., Wang, P.S., Chiang, W., Experimental biology and medicine, Vol.232(9), 2007, 1181-1194]


{{:coix_lacrima.jpg?500}} \\
Coix lacryma-jobi L. as Coix lacrima L., \\
Martius, C., Eichler, A.G., Urban, I., Flora Brasiliensis, vol.2(2) f.51, t.10 (1871) [J.Huegel & J.C.Doell] \\
[[http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=26278]]