The Other Cereals – then Onward

The other cereals mentioned in the text are Rye, Triticale, Oats, Barley, Sorghum and Millet. We can add proso-millet to the list.

RyeRye probably was first cultivated unintentionally as a weed in wheat fields. It is still listed as a “noxious weed” in 46 of the United States, but grows in even more:

It was formally noted as a weed by Theophrastus during Greek times, but was recognized 5,000 YBP.

It is highly tolerant of soil acidity and is more tolerant of dry and cool conditions than wheat, though not as tolerant of cold as barley. Its broader tolerances led to cultivation instead of wheat in northern Europe. That cultivation only began (well-documented) during the Bronze Age of central Europe, c. 1800-1500 BC.

There is only one cultivated species,Secale cereale.

Its protein content is relatively high,including measurable, useful amountsof 13 amino acids.

Rye flour is used in bread, though its lower gluten content means it is rarely used alone. Usually is used with bread wheat in a mixed dough. Rye bread is still the most popular bread in northern Europe and in immigrant communities from those countries.

Rye grains are eaten boiled (like rice) and as rolled rye (like rolled oats).

Rye is also used in alcoholic beverages: rye beer (never tried), rye whiskies (including Canadian Club whisky, partially from rye, though the larger carbohydrate source is corn), and even vodka.

It is also an important component of animal fodder, though lower digestibility indicates that it should not be the exclusive feed used.

Rye is highly susceptible to the ergot fungus. Consumption of ergot-infected rye by humans and animals results in a serious medical condition known as ergotism. Ergotism (common name St. Anthony’s fire after burning sensations in limbs, even the subject of an episode of House durin the 2010-1 season) can cause both physical and mental harm, including:• (through vasoconstriction) gangrene, • convulsions or dementia (same reason, but now lack of circulation to the brain), • miscarriage (it was used to cause abortion), and• hallucinations (LSD was first produced as an ergot derivative, lysergic acid is still produced from ergot).

Historically, damp northern countries that have depended on rye as a staple crop were subject to periodic epidemics of this condition.

Triticale

Triticale is a man-made hybrid of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rye (Secale cereale). The wheat is used as the female and rye as the male parent of the hybridizing cross. Hybrids were first produced during the latter half of the 19th century, but were sterile. More recently (post-War), hybrids that are not only viable, but fertile have been developed.

This fertile triticale is a second-generation hybrid, produced by crossing two hybrid triticales.

In formal terminology, triticale is an allopolyploid plant.

Earlier triticale hybrids had four reproductive disorders namely, meiotic instability (you would expect this in a new hybrid with non-matching chromosomes), high aneuploid frequency (random loss of whole chromosomes for closely related reasons), low fertility (unstable meiosis and an unmatched genome would likely cause this) and shriveled seed.

However, triticale has long been considered excellent animal forage, due to its higher protein content than rye and high digestibility.

Protein content: wheat average 12.9% rye 10.75% (high lysine) triticale ~12.9% (also high lysine)

Triticale has some of the resistance to disease that characterizes rye, but, to improve that, reverse hybridization has also been done: rye as female parent, wheat as male.

For human consumption, you have to try health food stores. Like rye it has a limited gluten content, and is usually mixed with wheat flour to prepare bread.

Research into selection is ongoing to improve triticale. Selection has produced yields of more than 2 tons/hectare in northwest Mexico and an even higher yield line that gives 10 tons/hectare under optimum (and therefore not natural) conditions. That’s remarkable!

World total production is 13.5 million metric tons/year. Leading producers:

Poland 3.7 million metric tonsGermany 2.7 million metric tons

Oats

Oats (Avena sativa) is only rarely turned into a flour, and even then the grain is not refined. Oats, therefore, is a high protein grain (~15%). Oats has long spikelets with multiple florets per spikelet.

Oats are supposed to be a very healthy food, and not just because the bran and germ are included. The bran, and the soluble fiber in it, are believed to have cholesterol-lowering properties.

We consume it as rolled oats in a porridge, as an additive in dough for bread or cookies, in muesli and granola, and beer (oatmeal stout, where ~5% of the grain used is oatmeal).

Oats are native to Eurasia and appear to have been domesticated relatively late. They are now grown throughout the temperate zones. They have a lower summer heat requirement and greater tolerance of rain than other cereals like wheat, rye, or barley, so are particularly important in areas with cool, wet summers such as northwest Europe and parts of Canada. Leading producers:

Russia 5.1 million metric tonsCanada 3.3 million metric tonsUnited States 1.7 million metric tons

Oats are considered to be a ‘health food’ for a number of reasons:

1. The soluble fiber in oats is in the form of β-glucans that are glucose molecules linked in a way that makes the molecule flexible. They are not digestible. They come from endosperm cell walls that represent 5 – 23% of whole oat products. You need 3 g of soluble fiber in a healthy diet (according to the U.S. F.D.A.). You can probably get all of it from a bowl of oatmeal. Remember, they may help to lower LDL in circulation.

2. After corn, oats has the highest lipid content of any cereal. It’s >10%. Much of it is phospholipid, the same stuff our cell membranes are mode from.

3. The protein content of oats is 17%. The protein content of hull-less oats (12-24%) is the highest among cereals.

4. The quality of this protein also is nearly equal to that from meat or eggs.

5. Oats also contain a variety of vitamins and minerals. 100 g of oats includes:

Pantothenic acid (B5) 1.3 mg or 26% of RDIFolic acid (B9) 56 g or 14% “Fe 5 mg or 40% “Mg 177 mg or 48% “

Oats are sown in the spring, as soon as soil can be worked. The young plants are cold-tolerant, and unaffected by late frosts. The oats can be harvested just before the grain is completely ripe. A good yield is about 3000 kg/hectare.

There are two main varieties of basic oat products: steel cut oats, in which the whole oat kernel is cut into two or three pieces . This type is also called Scotch oats or Irish oats.

rolled oats are flake oats that have been steamed, rolled, re-steamed and toasted.

Steel cut oats take longer to cook and are claimed to have more flavor, but let’s leave it at: either kind is good for you.

Barley

Barley as a domesticated crop is approximately as old as wheat. Hordeum vulgare even looks a lot like wheat. Time of domestication varies among sources, but 9,000 YBP is a good estimate.

Today barley has two main uses: as forage for animals and to produce malted barley in making beer. A secondary use is to make “pearl barley” which is like polished rice (most nutritional value removed) for use in soups.

Barley ranks 4th in the global area devoted to its cultivation, 560,000 km2 with a total production of 138 million metric tons. The world’s major barley producers are:

Russia 16.7 million metric tonsCanada 12.1Germany 11.7France 10.4

Modern barley, H. vulgare, a 6-rowed barley, is derived from a wild species, H. spontaneum. The wild species apparently has shattering heads. It is a two-rowed form. There is still some two-rowed barley grown, now called H. distichum, as well as some four-rowed barley, H. tetrastichum.

There is a difference in protein (enzyme) content among these types: 6-rowed has the highest protein levels, 2-rowed the lowest. 2-rowed is used in English-style ales. 6-rowed is used in animal feed and in German and American lagers.

Barley is malted to be used in the production of alcoholic beverages, both beer and whisky. Grains are made to germinate and then are quickly dried before the plant develops. Malting grains develops the enzymes that are required to modify the grain's starches into sugars.

Barley is grown in many regions of the world due to its tolerance to cold temperature, low humidity, and even to saline soils.

Barley has been subjected to genetic modification, introducing genes from soil bacteria, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, that produce an enzyme, glucanase. This enzyme breaks down plant cell walls (β-glucans), and makes the grain more digestible to animals (chickens, pigs, cattle), as well as improving brewing characteristics for beer-makers.

Sorghum

Sorghum is grown for food in many parts of the world, but in North America it is largely grown for its sap (or syrup).

Sorghum originated in East Africa. Wild sorghum was present (and probably harvested) 8,000 YBP, but was not domesticated until less than 5,000 YBP. There are a number of varieties of the single domesticated species, Sorghum bicolor), chosen for different characteristics:

grain sorgum (common name milo, used as food), grass sorghum (as pasture fodder),

sweet sorghum (formerly called “Guinea corn”, and the source for syrup), and broom sorghum (as the name suggests, grass used to make brooms).

As might be expected from the original source area, sorghum is heat and drought tolerant. It is a C4 plant.

It is an important food in Africa, Central America, and south Asia. Sorghum is the grain in ‘real’ couscous.

Total world production of sorghum in 2005 was 58.6 million metric tons. Leading producers:

United States 9.8 million metric tonsIndia 8.0Nigeria 8.0Mexico 6.3Sudan 4.2

Sorghum produces as much alcohol as corn for use in fuel. As the use of ‘gasohol’ increases, it is likely sorghum production will increase.

In sub-Saharan Africa, sorghum is used to produce beer. In North America a few breweries produce sorghum beer because it is gluten free (drinkable by those with celiac disease) and is a “low-carb” beverage.

The original source also suggests that it requires relatively high soil and air temperatures to grow well. That pretty much eliminates Canada.

It also has a fairly high Nitrogen requirement (fertilization!), but is not vulnerable to many diseases, and is highly competitive (weeds are suppressed!). However, there are some insect pests:

Sorghum webworm Sorghum midge pupal cases

To improve harvesting, genes for dwarfism (reducing lodging) have recently been selected. Without the dwarfing genes you can see that it grows to about 2m. With the genes it grows only to 60 – 120 cm.

Millet

Millet is a collective term that represents a group of unrelated species. The major representatives are:

Pearl millet – Pennisetum glaucum

Foxtail millet – Setaria iltalica

Proso millet – Panicum miliaceum

Finger millet – Eleusine coracana

A field of pearl millet

While millet domestication is not so old as rice, charred remains of grain indicate that millet was more extensively used than rice in Asia from ~7,000 – 4,000 YBP.

Millet can replace wheat and buckwheat (see next grain), with a protein content (11%) much like wheat. Millet contains no gluten, so can’t be used for bread, but is a good source of vitamins and minerals (niacin, folic acid, B6, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, zinc).

Pearl millet, like sorghum, can be grown under ‘difficult’ conditions like low rainfall, high temperature, and low soil fertility. It is widely grown in sub-Saharan Africa.

Pearl millet accounts for ~50% of all millet grown, and is cultivated on 26 million hectares worldwide. In North America it is grown for green forage, for grain to feed cattle and pigs, and more recently for ethanol production. In Africa it is a staple food as a porridge and mixed with wheat in both leavened and unleavened bread.

Buckwheat

Buckwheat is formally not a cereal grain, and the plant is not a grass. It’s a dicot. Depending on the source it falls into different genera. We’ll go with Polygonum esculentum. The other genus name is Fagopyrum. It is related to wild lettuce (Rumex) and other weedy polygonums that grow locally.

The seeds are ‘triangular’, and are available at most bulk food stores both raw and toasted (commonly called ‘groats’ or ‘kasha’, a Russian name), and as a pancake flour.

Buckwheat ‘grain’ contains up to 11% protein. One (possibly) familiar use is in Japanese soba noodles. Buckwheat contains rutin, a medicinal chemical used for vascular disorders. Buckwheat is also a good honey plant, producing a dark, strong honey.

Unlike the widely consumed seeds, buckwheat greens are toxic to humans.

It is considered a major pest (along with its dicot weed relatives) in Western agriculture.

Buckwheat was first domesticated and cultivated in southwest Asia around 6000 BC, then spread both eastward into China, Tibet and central Asia, and westward to Europe. It has become (sadly) less popular in North America, and the area used for cultivation in the U.S. has declined from one million acres in 1918 to 50,000 acres in 1964, after which records haven’t been kept. That means we import a lot (perhaps most) of the buckwheat we use.

Amaranth

Amaranths are also called pigweeds. They are also not grasses, but may represent a source of food of increasing importance for the growing human population. There are about 60 species. The important ones are grown as leaf vegetables and cereals. The grain is important in Asia (the Himalayas particularly), but it was also a staple for the Incas and Aztecs.

Amerindians of Mexico still toast amaranth grain like popcorn and mix it with honey or molasses as a special treat called alegria (literal translation: joy).

Amaranth leaves are a very good source of vitamins, including A, B6, C, riboflavin, and folic acid, and dietary minerals including Ca, Fe, Mg, P, K, zinc, Cu, and Mn. Amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources.

Cultivation as an edible grain dates to 4,000 years ago.

Geographic origins are in Central and South America, also India.

Amaranths are also C4 photosynthetic plants (like maize, sorghum, sugar cane..)

The protein content is up to 17% and is high in essential amino acids, especially lysine. Therefore, it offers good complimentary nutritional value in combination with maize.

Amaranthus is making a comeback as an alternative crop.

Kamut

Kamut is a late addition to the list. You find it in the list of ingredients in many multi-grain cereals. It is really a variety of durum wheat, in the species Triticum turgidum subspecies turanicum. The name kamut comes from an ancient Egyptian word for wheat.

Compared to common wheat, Kamut is richer in protein (by between 15% and 40%), minerals such as magnesium and zinc, Vitamin Bs and Vitamin E and unsaturated fatty acids.

Kamut flour, used in breads, etc. and kamut used as a breakfast cereal are both unrefined, and therefore retain essentially all nutrients in the grain.

Quinoa

One last ‘grain’ – quinoa, which is actually the seed of a species in the same genus as the local weed ‘lamb’s quarters’. The species that provides the grain is Chenopodium quinoa. It, like amaranth, is not a grass; rather it is a dicot. It is also in the same family, Amaranthaceae.

C. quinoa, like C. album (lamb’s quarters) can be consumed as a green leafy vegetable, although that isn’t done very much.

Quinoa originated in Andean South America, and has been used for around 6,000 years. The Incas called it “the mother of all grains” (chisaya mama).

It is climate hardy, grown up to 4000 m elevation, but in North America it is susceptible to a leaf miner (an insect) that probably spread to it from lamb’s quarters.

Quinoa was a key component of the pre-Columbian Andean diet (second to potato, and ahead of maize). The reason: it contains a high protein content (12 – 18%) and all the essential amino acids. It is also gluten-free (and not useful for bread).

Quinoa has a surface coating of saponins (natural detergents) that can be mildly toxic. However, commercial quinoa either has been pre-soaked or comes with instructions to remove it.

Quinoa can be cooked like rice, and used in many of the same dishes, but taking advantage of its higher protein content and inclusion of essential amino acids.