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The all-purpose grain
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Once a source of main meal, barley is valued for its medicinal value in modern times.
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What has disease to do with men who live upon barley bread and buttermilk?
-Ancient Persian saying.
BARLEY IS a grain with a heritage more ancient than rice or wheat. The crop may have originated in China or in Ethiopia, but the oldest evidence for its cultivation is in Syria, in a site dating back to 8000 BC. Ancient clay tablets of that region describe how to make beer from the grain. Barley bread, the staple food of ancient man, is a chunky, wholesome food, not quite as light and fluffy as the gluten-rich wheat bread that came later, but filling and nutritious all the same.
The Vedas describe barley as one of "the immortal sons of heaven". The Old Testament is full of references to this crop, as are the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the cuneiform writings of the Sumerians. According to Hammurabi, the Babylonians used the grain as a currency.
The range of dishes prepared with this grain over the ages and across the continents is truly astonishing. The Japanese, Koreans and Chinese are fond of barley tea, and the Scots, before they substituted oats for barley, once enjoyed "bannocks" - barley cakes served with jam. The Scots still enjoy barley pudding prepared with currants, sugar, cream and milk. The traditional English meal, Barley Bake, is made from barley, mutton and celery. Halfway across the world, the Tibetans love tsampa, a porridge made with the toasted grain.
These days barley finds use mostly as cattle feed and as the source of beer. One look at its nutrition profile shows it is more than capable of matching wheat and rice. It is still an important food for the poor and the nomadic tribes, but there is no doubt that barring its use as food for invalids and convalescents it is out of favour with most middle-class folk.
Hundred gm of the grain contains nearly 350 Calorie, with nearly 80 percent of the calories in the form of carbohydrate. The high-energy content of the grain meant it was the chief fuel for the hard labour that built the pyramids of Egypt, and it explains why it was the food of choice for the gladiators of Rome. Barley is also rich in phosphorus, niacin, potassium, choline and pantothenic acid.
Barley water with honey is an ancient remedy for wheezing coughs. Other folk medicinal uses are as a cure for most infectious diseases, tumours, sores, warts and intestinal ailments. The astonishing number of such uses is a testament to barley's long presence in the life of modern man rather than a sign of any intrinsic medicinal value.
RAJIV.M
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