• DOI:10.1007/BF02861377
• Corpus ID: 32324938

Preliminary observations on the ethnobotany of the genusCoix

@article{Jain2008PreliminaryOO,
  title={Preliminary observations on the ethnobotany of the genusCoix},
  author={S. K. Jain and Deb Kumar Banerjee},
  journal={Economic Botany},
  year={2008},
  volume={28},
  pages={38-42}
}

• S. Jain, D. Banerjee
• Published 2008
• Biology
• Economic Botany

The genus Coix belongs to the tribe Maydeae (Tripsaceae) of the family Poaceae. The tribe consists of annual or perennial monoecious grasses with the staminate spikelets in 2's or 3's, the carpellate single or in 2's or 3's, both kinds in the same or in different inflorescences. In Coix the carpellate spikelets are in 3's (1 fertile, 2 sterile), each group being enclosed in a more or less hardened, bead-like structure, the involucre, formed from the metamorphosed leaf sheath. The axis of the staminate portion of the inflorescence protrudes from the orifice at the apex of the involucre. Instances are on record in Coix aquatica Roxb. where, abnormally, more or less perfect leaf blades develop at the tip of the involucres (4, 5). We have examined, at Calcutta, the specimen cited by Haines (5)(Watt, from Balasore, Orissa); several involucres have leaf blades on their tips (Fig. 1). This confirms that the involucre is a metamorphosed leaf sheath. Recently, while studying material of Coix and allied genera, we gathered data on this genus during field work and from herbarium sheets, and also from obscure literature. These are of much ethnobotanical interest and are brought together here. References to Coix are found in European literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as the work of Rumphius (11). Coix lacryrna-jobi is referred to in such early works as "Griemile," "Li thospermon," "Aegonychon," "Diospyron," "Heracleos." The edibility of the seeds was recorded as early as 1731 (8). In Asia, the plant reportedly was known in Vedic times; the Arabs called it "Damu Daud" (David's tears) and later "Damu Ayub" (Job's tears), referring to the shape of the involucre. Its medicinal value, as a tonic and diuretic, is said to have been known as early as 1260 A.D. Sometime after this, the plant was introduced by the Arabs into the West (13). The genus Coix is represented in India by four species: C. aquatica, C. gigantea, C. lacryrna-jobi, and C. puellarum.