Coix lacryma-jobi
(Job's-tears)

Preferred Common Name

• Job's-tears

Other Scientific Names

• Coix agrestis Lour.
• Coix agrestis var. maxima (Makino) Nakai
• Coix arundinacea Lam.
• Coix exaltata Jacq. ex Spreng.
• Coix lacryma L., nom. illeg.
• Coix lacryma-jobi var. maxima Makino
• Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Rom.Caill.) Stapf
• Coix lacryma-jobi var. novoguineensis Pilg.
• Coix lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa Oliv.
• Coix ouwehandii Koord.
• Coix ovata Stokes, nom. illeg.
• Coix palustris Koord.
• Coix pendula Salisb., nom. illeg.
• Coix pumila Roxb.
• Coix stigmatosa K. Koch & C.D. Bouché
• Lithagrostis lacryma-jobi (L.) Gaertn.
• Sphaerium lacryma (L.) Kuntze, nom. illeg.

International Common Names

• English: adlay; adlay millet
• Spanish: lágrimas de Job; Lagrimas de San Pedro; lágrimas de San Pedro; lágrimas de señora
• French: coix larme de Job; grains de Job; larme de Job; Larmes de Job
• Arabic: damu ayub
• Chinese: yi mi; yiyi
• Portuguese: erva dos rosários; lágrima-de-nossa-senhora

Local Common Names

• Bangladesh: siba
• Benin: larmes du Joab
• Bhutan: bo-hoem; boma; boom; buma kaam; bumar karchu; cheem ho chum; chungma; chungme; crotokpai; deokush; garay-malo; lhamboumba; nangchung phrengma; pinmar; pompaling; sekam; tektekma
• Bolivia: lágrima de María
• Brazil: biuri; capia; capim-de-contas; capim-missanga; capim-rosario; conta-de-lágrima; lagrima-de-Jo; tsiku
• Cambodia: skuöy
• China: yi mi; yi yi; zhai guo yi yi
• Congo Democratic Republic: mashangu
• Cook Islands: poepoe
• Costa Rica: adlay; cuentas de San Pedro; trigo adlay
• Côte d'Ivoire: manquassèm
• Cuba: camándula; cuentas de doña Juana; lágrimas de Moisés; millo chino; santa Juana; santa maría
• Dominican Republic: cuenta de la virgen; larmilles des Indes; santa lucía; santa maría
• El Salvador: zacate de perla
• Fiji: sila
• France: herbe à chapelets; larmille
• French Polynesia: poepoe
• Germany: hiobs- traenengras
• Ghana: agu; ahwinie ; akrokosebia; job n’ani nsuwa; owu-amma-mankã m’asem = death makes me mute
• Guinea: a-mber-kesy; bonco; fondo; forono; wa-kometa
• Haiti: graines chapelet; graines maldioc; graines réglisse; larmilles des Indes
• Hungary: jób könnye; könnyfű
• India: adavi guruginja; ashru bija; chaning; gavedhu; gavedhukah; gurgur; gurlu; jargadi; kasai; kasai; kasi; kattu kundumani; kattugotampu; manjutti; netpavalum; ran jamdhlo; ran-maka; ranmakkai; samkru; sanklee; sankru; sohriu
• Indonesia: anjalai; hajeli; hanjere; hankeli; jali; jali betul; jali watu; japen; jelai; jelai batu; jelai pulut; jelen; kenjeali; menjelai; perara; rumput jelai; senjeali
• Italy: lacrima di Giobbe
• Japan: hato-mugi; juzudama; juzudama; juzu-dama; zyudu-dama
• Korea, DPR: gusuljulmu; julmu; julmu
• Korea, Republic of: gusuljulmu; gusuljulmu; julmu
• Laos: düay
• Liberia: Zã
• Malaysia: batak; biji bali; buah jail; dalai; jali batu; jali-jali; jelai; jelai batu; jelai pulut; jilai; lanchang; melai tikus; menjelai; senjelai
• Mayotte: loulou masera; tasoumbihin loulou; tassoubi massera
• Mexico: acayacotl; acayacoyoth; acayocoyotl; arrocillo; batagá; collar de maiz; collarcillo; ishlacashtajad; ishlacashtajat; lágrima; lagrimilla; pasto; san pedro; soguilla; sonajilla; suuk-paen; tzacat tapisno; zacate; zacate de cuentas
• Micronesia: fetin umuno; rosario
• Myanmar: ka-leik; kalein; kalein-thi; kyeik
• Nepal: bhirkaunlo; genduri; gwenchhi; jabe; jargedi; taktriya
• Netherlands: jobstranen
• New Zealand: tangatanga
• Nigeria: aká-ịla = corn bead; ngkwà eto; nkwà ikọ̀t
• Niue: tagataga; tangatanga
• Pakistan: sanklu
• Palau: demairush; demairuuch; pa nga ruiz; tauiir; taviir
• Papua New Guinea: karikari
• Peru: perla vegetal
• Philippines: abúkai; adlái; agágai; aglái; alimúdias; atákai; Balantákan; barubaióko; bilen; bintíkai; damáu; katigbí; kibaoung; koldásan; Kudlásan; lamúdias; liás; paiás; paliás; pintáka; tidbí; Tigbí; tigbíkai
• Puerto Rico: camándulas lágrimas de Jacobo
• Réunion: herbe à chapelets; job
• Samoa: sagasaga; sagisagi; sanasana
• Sao Tome and Principe: capim-de-nossa-senhora
• Senegal: balifõ; boror; foror; ma-karamba-késé; ñammaket; porola
• Seychelles: herbe collier; herbe Job
• Sierra Leone: am-polo; boboni-volo; bohori; bongkori; e-pereka; folo; foro; foronde-tasebia; forondo; forondo-mese; gbegbe-na; gbegbe-tasabia-na; gboe; gbolo; gbolopko; gboye; jina-forondo; kali bagi; kpetehu-volo; kpoklo-le; kpokolo-le; ma-polo; matomperega; pu-boe; sankala; sisig; yiri-foronde
• Sri Lanka: kirindi
• Thailand: Duai; maduai
• Tonga: hana; hana tuikahoa
• USA/Hawaii: ‘ohe‘ohe; kūkaekōlea; kūkaekōlea; pū'ohe'ohe; pūpū kōlea
• Vanuatu: butsu wasil; Mwahile hile; wasil
• Vietnam: bo bo; bo bo nếp; cườm gạo; y dĩ nhọn

EPPO code

• COXLJ (Coix lacryma-jobi)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Monocotyledonae
•                     Order: Cyperales
•                         Family: Poaceae
•                             Genus: Coix
•                                 Species: Coix lacryma-jobi

Coix is the sole genus of the subtribe Coicinae in the tribe Andropogonae, comprising 4 closely related species, all native to South-East Asia and Northern Australia with a center of diversity in northeast India (Arora, 1977; Clayton and Renvoize, 1992; Soreng et al., 2015). It is considered one of the most derived genera within the Andropogonae due to its highly specialized, unusual inflorescences (Clayton and Renvoize, 1992).

The taxonomy of this genus has been ill defined and poorly understood mainly due to its extensive cultivation and the vast phenotypic variation occurring within species (Koul, 1974). As Coix lacryma-jobi has been cultivated across Asia for centuries, many cultivars have been developed, as well as varieties selected by farmers for easy husking (Arora, 1977; van den Bergh and Iamsupasit, 1996). About 30 taxa have been described within the genus (several of them varieties or forms of C. lacryma-jobi), but only a small number deserve specific rank. The Plant List (2013) lists the following four accepted names: C. aquatica Roxb., C. gasteenii B.K.Simon, C. lacryma-jobi, and C. puellarum Balansa.

Coix lacryma-jobi was described from India by Linnaeus in 1753. ‘Coix’ derives from ‘koix’, an ancient Greek name used by Theophrastus for a palm of the genus Hyphaene (Quattrocchi, 2012), because of the resemblance of the involucres (or false fruits) of Coix to the fruit of this palm (Wagner et al., 1990). ‘Lacryma’ means tear-drop, and ‘jobi’ alludes to Job, the biblical figure who endured much suffering. Apparently, the ovoid grayish or bluish false fruits of this species resemble or symbolize the tears shed by Job (Clifford and Bostock, 2007).

Three varieties of C. lacryma-jobi are commonly recognized: C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi, C. lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa Oliv. and C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Rom. Caill.) Stapf. The variety lacryma-jobi is the most common and most widely naturalized. The variety ma-yuen is often cultivated as a food grain (Jain and Banerjee, 1974; Shouliang and Phillips, 2006).

The following description is adapted from Wagner et al. (1990) and Thieret (2003):

Robust annual or perennial grass; culms up to 3 m, erect, with solid internodes. Leaves mostly cauline, distichous; sheaths loose, terete, glabrous; ligule membranous, 1.5-2 mm long, with margins erose and minutely fringed; blades linear-lanceolate, 10-75 × 2-6 cm, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, each consisting of two unisexual racemes, one pistillate, and the other staminate. Pistillate raceme completely enclosed within a globose-ovoid, bony or soft, modified leaf sheath termed involucre or utricule, this usually 8-12 mm long, white, grayish, bluish or black, lustrous; spikelets in the pistillate raceme 3, one sessile and fertile, the upper two rudimentary; lower glumes of the functional pistillate spikelet 6-10 mm long, hyaline below, 5-7 veined, with a 1-3 mm coriaceous beak; florets 2, one sterile, the upper fertile and with the two stigmas protruding from the involucre; lodicules absent. Staminate raceme flexible, borne on a long peduncle that protrudes from the mouth of the involucre, 2-5 cm long, with 3-25 pairs of imbricate spikelets; spikelets 5-9 mm long, dorsally compressed, each with 2 florets; lower glume elliptic to obovate, somewhat asymmetric, with 15 or more veins, chartaceous, margins folded inward, the apex obtuse; upper glume lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, with a keel often winged, the apex acute; lemna 5-8 mm, hyaline, elliptic to ovate, 3-veined; palea similar to lemna but 2-veined; stamens 3, anthers 3-6 mm; lodicules 2. Caryopsis ellipsoid to subglobose, ventrally furrowed, 2.5-5 mm long, enclosed within the involucre.

Based on the shape and hardness of the involucres, three varieties of C. lacryma-jobi are commonly recognized: C. lacryma-jobi var. lacryma-jobi, C. lacryma-jobi var. stenocarpa Oliv., and C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen (Rom. Caill.) Stapf. The variety lacryma-jobi has globose to ovoid, bony and glossy involucres. The variety stenocarpa has elongate, bottle-shaped, hard involucres, while the variety ma-yuen has elliptical, striate, soft involucres (Jain and Banerjee, 1974; Shouliang and Phillips, 2006).

Coix lacryma-jobi may have been one of the earliest Asian plants brought into cultivation, perhaps even before rice (Jain and Banerjee, 1974). Starch granules of this species have been recovered from archaeological sites in China dating to the sixth millennium BC (Liu et al., 2014). The involucres have been found in sites of the Ahar culture (ca. 2500 BC) in India (Mishra, 2008), and in many other places throughout Asia, including archeological sites in East Timor as old as 14,800 BP (Vasco Oliveira, 2006), indicating that this plant was transported and spread by people since very early times.

The earliest reference of C. lacryma-jobi in Europe was made by Pliny in his ‘Natural History’ of AD 77 (Venkateswarlu and Chaganti, 1973). In Europe it was grown mainly as a garden curiosity for its peculiar bead-like involucres rather than for food (Miller, 1754). It was listed by Lamarck (1792) as cultivated in France, and by Sims (1824) and Sweet (1827) as cultivated as a garden ornamental in the UK since 1596. Sims (1824) reported this species growing spontaneously in Greece, and in Syria, although no other report of its occurrence in this country could be found.

From Europe, C. lacryma-jobi spread to other parts the West (Koul, 1974). It was reported as naturalized on St. Helena by 1875, where it was described as “wild and common in the ravines of the lowlands” (Mellis, 1875). It was likely brought there by the Portuguese, who introduced many plants to the island during the 16^th century.

The earliest mention of C. lacryma-jobi in the New World is probably that of Hernández for Mexico in ‘Historia de las plantas de Nueva España’ (1571-1576), where he describes it as a medicinal plant. However, although the description seems to correspond well with this species (“llaman aqui litospermo arundináceo porque tiene hojas de caña y fruto blanco al principio y después negro, lustroso y parecido a cuentas”), the two accompanying illustrations clearly belong to two different monocot species (Canna sp. and Maranta sp.), so this report should be treated with caution (Hernández, 1943).

C. lacryma-jobi was recorded in Colombia by José C. Mutis in 1761 (Pinto-Escobar, 1985), and in French Guiana in 1775 (Aublet, 1775). It was reported for Cuba in 1850, “as cultivated in gardens and fields” (De la Sagra, 1850), and was already naturalized in the French Antilles by 1871 (Husnot and Coutance, 1871).

Coix lacryma-jobi was probably introduced into Africa from India (Stapf, 1917). It was reported only in Algeria and the Canary Islands by Durand and Schinz (1895), which seems to indicate that its spread in this continent occurred relatively recently. By 1917 it was reported for Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Kenya and Tanzania (Stapf, 1917). Now this species is naturalized in most African countries, but it is occasionally cultivated. Its main use is for making necklaces and articles of adornment that are often worn at religious occasions (Jansen, 2006).

The introduction of C. lacryma-jobi to Australia also appears to be relatively recent. The species is not mentioned by Bentham (1878), and the oldest herbarium specimens appear to be from 1915 (Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, 2016). At present, this species can be found naturalized along waterways in major urban centres such as Sydney, Brisbane and Perth (Weed Watch, 2010).

In Hawaii, C. lacryma-jobi was first noted around 1870, but the earliest herbarium specimen was collected in 1903 (Wagner et al., 1990).

Soil drainage

• free
• impeded
• seasonally waterlogged

Soil reaction

• acid
• alkaline
• neutral

Soil texture

• heavy
• light
• medium

Natural Dispersal

The floating bead-like involucres containing the fruit are carried by water, particularly during floods. They are also likely dispersed by birds and mammals (Weed Watch, 2010).

Intentional Introduction

Coix lacryma-jobi has been intentionally introduced in many tropical and subtropical countries as a cereal crop, and as a forage, medicinal, and ornamental grass.

Impact on Habitats

Coix lacryma-jobi can spread rapidly along waterways. It is capable of forming dense clumps and large colonies which may block the flow of watercourses and outcompete native plants including mesic and riparian vegetation and native aquatic plants (MacKee, 1994; Technigro, 2010; Weed Watch, 2010; I3N-Brasil, 2017; PIER, 2017).

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Has a broad native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Highly adaptable to different environments
• Is a habitat generalist
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Highly mobile locally
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Long lived
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential
• Gregarious
• Reproduces asexually
• Has high genetic variability

• Damaged ecosystem services
• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Modification of hydrology
• Monoculture formation
• Negatively impacts agriculture
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - monopolizing resources
• Rapid growth
• Rooting

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately
• Highly likely to be transported internationally illegally

Economic Value

The hard, glossy involucres of C. lacryma-jobi are commonly used as beads to make necklaces, bracelets, rosaries, curtains, musical shakers and many other decorative objects, which are sold in local markets and online craft stores.

The soft-shelled variety (ma-yuen) is cultivated as a food grain in several Asian countries both for animal and human consumption. The kernels can be cooked as rice or used for soups and broths. They can also be used to make alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, or can be pounded into a flour to make bread and baked goods. The whole grain and the flour are also used to feed chickens and pigs. The whole plant provides a very palatable fodder for cattle, buffaloes and horses (Schaaffhausen, 1952; Jain and Banerjee, 1974; Jansen, 2006).

Coix lacryma-jobi is a nutritious food, with a higher protein content than rice and maize. The hulled grains contains 11.6 g of water, 14.8 g of protein, 4.9 g of fat, 66.9 g of carbohydrate and 0.5 g of fiber per 100g edible portion. Minerals and vitamins include Ca (47 mg), P (254 mg), Fe (6 mg), thiamin (0.26 mg), riboflavin (0.19 mg) and niacin (4.7 mg) (Jansen, 2006).

An anticancer drug known as ‘Kanglaite’ has been developed from the seed oil. The drug is approved in China to treat several types of cancer, and is currently under study in the USA as a potential treatment for pancreatic and prostate cancer (Xi et al., 2016). The main bioactive component is coixenolide, a fatty acid ester that has been shown to possess anticancer activity (Ukita and Tanimura, 1961).

The largest producer of Coix seeds is China, with a cultivation area of approximately 73000 ha, 32000 of which are in the province of Guizhou (Diao, 2017). The grain is marketed as Chinese pearl barley, Coix seeds or adlay seeds.

Social Benefit

Coix lacryma-jobi has been cultivated for food, forage and medicinal purposes for thousands of years. It appears to have been an important crop in Southern and Eastern Asia before rice and maize became widespread (Jansen, 2006). At present, it is rather an accessory crop, but there is a growing demand due to its nutritional and medicinal qualities (Diao, 2017).

In Ayurveda, Unani and Sidha medicine, C. lacryma-jobi has been used to treat a broad range of ailments including headache, fever, inflammation, rheumatism, diabetes, dysentery, diarrhea, infections, intestinal worms and menstrual disorders. In the traditional Chinese medicine it is used to treat cancer, tumors, enteritis, edema, eczema and warts (Quattrocchi, 2012). The plant has been also used in veterinary medicine in India and Africa. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the macerated roots are used to control internal parasites in livestock (Chifundera, 1998).

The necklaces and accessories made with the involucres have long been used as ornaments, and in rituals and religious ceremonies (Jain and Banerjee, 1974; Jansen, 2006; Roder, 2006). The dry leaves have been used for thatching in India (Jain and Banerjee, 1974). The dried inflorescences are sometimes used in flower arrangements (Jansen, 2006).

Environmental Services

Coix lacryma-jobi is very efficient in removing inorganic nitrogen from polluted waters, which makes it a suitable plant for wastewater treatment in tropical regions (Jampeetong et al., 2013).