REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Taxonomy of Coix lacryma-jobi

The genus Coix belongs to the Family Poaceae, formerly called Gramineae (the
true grass family) which is mostly herbs comprising one of the largest groups of
monocotyledonous flowering plants. Poaceae is one of the seven grass families under the
order Poales which includes the families of the cattail group and the sedges group. It is
ranked fifth among the flowering plants in terms of number of species which is around
10,000 species and 600-700 genera (Clayton and Renvoize 1986). But it is clearly the
most abundant and important family of the Earths flora covering 20% of its land surface
(Kellog 2001).
Coix is one of the eight genera under the tribe Maydeae. In this tribe, Zea,
Euchlaena, and Tripsacum are classified as the New world grasses while Sclerachne,
Trilobachne, Chionachne, Polytoca, and Coix belong to the Old world Grasses (Anderson
1945). This classification is based on the place of origin, but aside from that, the two
groups also differ in morphology and cytology. This was the reason why Koul (1965)
split the tribe Maydeae into two, namely (1) Maydeae, which includes the three New
world grasses and (2) Coixideae, which includes the five Old world grasses. Coix has five
established species: C. aquatica, C. poilaeni, C. lacryma-jobi, C. puellarum, and C.
gigantea. All form a polyploid series with a base number of n=5 (Kaur et al. 2015). The
species C. lacryma-jobi has two forms namely the wild and cultivated types. The latter
includes four varieties that were originally found in India and classified from each other

by shape, color, and degree of hardness of the involucres. Soreng et al. (2015) specified
them as: C. lacryma-jobi var. typica, var. stenocarpa, var. monilifer and var. ma-yuen.
The fruit of the Coix, which is formed from the hardened floral leaf or bract, is
what differentiated it from the rest of the Maydeae tribe but not within species. Usually 1
cm or less in diameter, the fruit of the wild type Coix has a strong hard and stony fruit
case which is unbreakable by hand and is polished or shiny. The var. stenocarpa has
coarser leaves but the fruit is the same hard and stony, elongate and cylindrical. A
variation of the stenocarpa, the monilifer, has more variable fruit which is round and
broader (Bor 1960). On the other hand, the fruit of the cultivated types has a soft fruit
case which is harvested as cereal crop, thin-shelled, breakable and dull, usually exceeding
2 cm in diameter and coarse. The var. ma-yuen is a tall annual plant with a variable fruit
case pear-shaped to spheroid, and is thin-shelled (Jain and Banerjee 1974). But the
common characteristics of all types are the female spikelets which are completely
enclosed in a metamorphosed leaf sheath with a bead-like structure from ovoid to
spheroid and exhibiting various colors (Arora 1973).
The taxonomic characterization of this group has been very confusing because of
the wide variation within the taxa and the interhybridization among the species. Several
categories like morphology, habit, glandular hairs, structure of the spikelet, nature of the
fruit-case (involucres) and cytology have been used for the classification of the genus.
The complete classification of the Coix specifically the wild and cultivated types
is presented below (Soreng et al. 2015).

Kingdom Plantae
Subkingdom Viridiplantae
Infrakingdom Streptophyta
Division Embryophyta
Subdivision Tracheophyta
Class Spermatophytina
Superorder Magnoliopsida
Order Poales
Family Poaceae
Genus Coix
Species Coix lacryma-jobi Linn.

Distribution and Behavior

Coix is widely distributed in southern and eastern Asia where it is primarily

cultivated as a source of food and can now be found all over the world such as the west
where it acts as an ornamental plant. Most of the species are found in India, the
Philippines, Japan, Sikkim, Burma, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Due to the
abundance of varieties present in the Malay archipelago, it was thought to be the center of
origin of Coix. The edible grain from the var. ma-yuen is believed to be cultivated 30004000 years ago in India (Hutchinson 1974).
Jobs tears are annual in the temperate regions but perennial where frost is absent
or mild. These grasses occur naturally in swampy area and near streams. C. aquatica and
C. lacryma-jobi have been reported to tolerate low pH, photoperiodic latitude, poor soil,

slope, virus, and water logging (Duke 1978). This means that it can be easily grown in
areas not suitable for other crops. The cultivation process is also simple and not prone to
fungal and viral infections (Hutchinson 1974).

Economic Importance

The Poaceae provides a large portion of the worlds food source. It is in much
interest of humans because many people rely on grasses for the major part of their diet,
particularly rice, wheat and maize. Grains from grasses also serve as the major diet of
domesticated animals. In addition, grasses form an important part of the urban and
suburban landscape in much of the world.
In the Malay archipelago, Coix exists in an extensive series of cultivated types
and has several local names, the most popular of which is adlay in the Philippines.
There are many uses of Jobs tears namely: food, medicine, jewelry, and as an ornamental
plant. The seeds of the var. ma-yuen which are relatively softer and larger are eaten as
cereals. This variety has a sweet taste and is easy to gather. Compared to other grains, it
contains more amounts of fats and proteins which mean it contributes more to health than
rice and wheat (Jain and Banerjee 1974).
The first use of Coix as a medicine is treating people with stiffness due to wind
damp. The combination of Coix and aconite is one of the recommended remedies for
thoracic paralysis. In Japan, Coix is commonly known as shatomugi; it is promoted as a
supplement for beautiful skin, hair, and nails. Coix has been included in medicinal

formulas for treating skin diseases, such as acne and other swellings (Dharmananda
2001).
Polishing of the hard, shiny fruits of the wild type followed by dying makes them
good materials for rosaries, necklaces, curtains, and drapes. This is what attracted the
westerners of the cultivation of Coix as an ornamental plant (Hutchinson 1974).
It is believed that Coix came before rice and corn but was abandoned in favor of a
more wholesome grain. Nonetheless, it remained as a crop cultivated by people either by
farmers, as food reserves in time of scarcity and not as major crop or by scientists who
study them (Hutchinson 1974).

Cytogenetics

C. lacryma-jobi is believed to have arisen from the cross between two similar
diploid hybrids. The hybrid then doubled its chromosome number and because of
functional redundancy, genes were silenced or lost. C. lacryma-jobi has been recently
described as a diploidized paleotetraploid.
C. lacryma-jobi is known to be a cytologically stable species but there was a
report on the occurrence of cytological races with and without differentiated eu and
heteropycnotic regions (Venkateswarlu and Rao 1975) compared to C. gigantea and C.
aquatica which were known to breed spontaneously in nature (Deshpande et al. 1985).
Another study also observed the behavior of triploids and aneuploids in Jobs tears by
crossing diploids and tetraploids. It was observed that the triploids were more closely
comparable to the tetraploids in morphology. The only distinguishing characteristic was

the high sterility of the triploids. The aneuploids, on the other hand, resembled the
diploids more closely except for the fruit color which was brownish or dark brown
compared to the bluish white of the diploids (Rao 1976). Figure 1 shows the chromosome
behavior of C. lacryma-jobi var. typica in meiosis.
Coix is known to exhibit a wide range of genetic diversity among species and
even within species (2n =10 40) (Clayton and Renvoize 1986). It consists of species
with different ploidy levels; C. aquatica is diploid (2n=10), C. lacryma-jobi - tetraploid
(2n=20), C. lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen - hexaploid (2n=30) (Jacob 1990), and C.
gigantea - octoploid (2n=40). The var. ma-yuen is found in different parts of India, where
it is the main cultivated variety in Meghalaya, a North East hilly state of India. This
species is found to be cytologically interesting because it is the first natural hexaploid
cyto-type in Coix with a somatic number of 2n = 30 in the entire population (Jacob and
Christopher 1989). There has also been a reported hexaploid C. aquatica (2n = 30). This
new cyto-type was found in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China. It was
identified and analyzed by acetocarmine squash, fluorescence in situ hybridization
(FISH), and genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) techniques (Fig. 2). Based on the
GISH results, 20 chromosomes were highly homologous to the allotetraploid species of
C. lacryma-jobi (2n=20). And it was deduced that one of the parentals of the hexaploid C.
aquatica was C. lacryma-jobi (Yong-Hua et al. 2004).

Figure 1. Meiosis in Jobs tears, Coix lacryma-jobi var. typica (700x).

1. Diakinesis: 7 III 3 II and 3 I
2. Metaphase I: 9 III and 1 I
3. Metaphase I: 10 III
4. Anaphase I: 10:11 + 9 laggards
5. Anaphase I: 11:9 + 10 laggards

6. Telophase I: 4 laggards
7. Metaphase II: laggards
8. Anaphase II: laggards
9. Telophase II: 4 laggards

(Source: Rao 1976)