Cereal Grass: Nutritional Powerhouse

Cereal grass has been an integral part of human civilization for millennia, revered across diverse cultures for its nutritional and medicinal attributes. Dating back to 2800 BC in Chinese culture, particularly with wheat grass, its healing qualities were esteemed. Similarly, ancient Romans and Egyptians conducted ceremonial practices venerating cereal grasses and grains, recognizing their importance.

Comprising the tender green shoots of cereal plants such as wheat, barley, rye, and oats, which later yield cereal grains, cereal grass holds a surprising consistency in nutritional benefits despite its varied appearances. The recent surge in human consumption of cereal grass underscores its increasing popularity, although many remain unaware of its true nutritional value and essence.

Distinguished by their unique chemical and nutritional profiles, young cereal grasses markedly differ from mature seed grains. A succession of growth stages is imperative for cereal grasses to achieve their complete nutritional status. Nevertheless, the dehydration process preserves the nutritional integrity of cereal grass, offering a convenient and economical source of green food nutrients compared to other greens.

The exploration of cereal grass's potential commenced in the late 1920s, as researchers began scrutinizing the nutritional properties of young cereal plant leaves. Dr. George Kohler's seminal findings in the mid-1930s at the University of Wisconsin unveiled the correlation between the nutritional quality of milk and the grass consumed by cows. Consequently, Dr. Kohler's experimentation with young cereal grass resulted in a significant enhancement in milk production among dairy cows.

Further investigations in 1940 by Dr. Kohler elucidated the advantages of consuming young cereal grass for pregnant women at risk of miscarriage. This breakthrough paved the way for incorporating dehydrated cereal grass as one of the earliest forms of multivitamins, available in pharmacies by the late 1930s.

Abounding in essential nutrients such as beta-carotene, vitamin K, folic acid, calcium, iron, protein, and fiber, cereal grasses also serve as valuable reservoirs of vitamin C, various B vitamins, and chlorophyll, boasting well-established antioxidant properties. Additionally, cereal grasses encompass unidentified elements contributing to diverse health benefits, growth, and fertility in both animals and humans.

In summary, the longstanding reverence for cereal grasses, coupled with contemporary scientific revelations, underscores their significance as a nutritional powerhouse. From ancient rituals to modern research endeavors, cereal grasses continue to captivate with their abundant health benefits and potential for holistic well-being.
Cereal Grass: Nutritional Powerhouse

History of cereal grass

The grass family includes all the major cereals, such as wheat, maize, rice, barley, and oats, and most of the minor grains as well, such as rye, common millet, finger millet, teff, and many others that are less familiar.

The cereal grass barley was domesticated about 10,000 years before the present in the Fertile Crescent and became a founder crop of Neolithic agriculture. The Chinese honored the healing properties of wheat grass as far back as 2800 BC. The Romans and Egyptians have similar ceremonies for worshipping cereal grasses and grains. It has been said that people in the ancient Middle East ate the green leaf tips of the wheat plant as a delicacy.

Bottled, dehydrated cereal grass has been a popular food supplement for people in the United States since the early 1930s.

The consumption of wheatgrass in the Western world began in the 1930s as a result of experiments by Charles F. Schnabel and his attempts to popularize the plant. Schnabel, an agricultural chemist, conducted his first experiments with young grasses in 1930, when he used fresh cut grass in an attempt to nurse dying chickens back to health. The hens not only recovered, but they produced eggs at a higher rate than healthy hens.
History of cereal grass

Nutrient of cereal grass

Cereal grasses such as wheat, oat, rye, barley and brown rice are most familiar cereal grasses are one of the “functional foods” that is gaining recognition as a potential nutritional product which has medical and health benefits. The cereal grass such as barley was domesticated about 10,000 years before the present in the Fertile Crescent and became a founder crop of Neolithic agriculture.

They are excellent source of vitamin, minerals, antioxidant, amino acids, protein, chlorophyll and active enzymes.

The taste of young cereal grass leaves varies slightly with the species of cereal plant, from quite sweet (rye grass) to slightly bitter (barley grass). But the nutrient content of these grasses varies with their stage of growth and growing conditions, rather than with the species of cereal grass.

Cereal grasses are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin K, folic acid, calcium, iron, protein, and fiber, as well as good sources of vitamin C, many of the B vitamins, and chlorophyll, with established antioxidant properties. Dehydrated cereal grasses have been used for over twenty years as a vitamin/mineral supplement.
Nutrient of cereal grass

Cereal species

Cereals are members of the grass family Gramineae, being monocotyledonous angiosperm.  Based on botanists’ approximation, there are about 350,000 plant species, of which about 195,000 species are economically important flowering plants.

Cereals can be defined as grasses of which the grain is used for food; they may be cultivated or the grain is collected from wild plants.

Nearly 50 species are cultivated worldwide and as few as 17 species provide 90% of human food supply and occupy about 75% of the total tilled land on earth.

The cereal grains such as wheat, rice, corn, barley, oat, rye, sorghum and millet provide 50% of the food energy and 50% of the protein consumed on earth. Cereals are comparatively easy to grown and harvest, to store and to process into versatile and popular foods.

Wheat, rice and corn together make up three-fourths of the world’s grain production. The cereal species used in the greatest volume by the food industry is wheat. The types cultivated include hard (H) and soft (S) grained, red ® and white (W) grained and winter (W) and spring (S) sown variants.
Cereal species 

Seed grasses of millet

Millet is general name for small seed grasses. It is applied to a number of cultivated annual grasses included in genera that are not closely related. It includes finger, pearl, foxtail varieties and proso (the most common) millet.

About 20 species of 10 genera of grasses are called millet. They are annuals with a short growing season and have small seeds, generally of low quality for human nutrition.

Millets are some of the oldest cultivated crops, and have been used since ancient times. They were grown by the lake dwellers of Switzerland in the Stone Age, and were sown by the Chinese in religious ceremony as early as 2700 BC.

Sorghum is a special type of millet with large seeds, typically used for animal feed, but it is the primary food grain in many parts of the world where it is ground and made into porridge and cakes. It is also used to yield oil, sugars and alcoholic beverages.

Pearl millet has a large number of cultivated races that provides the staple food in the drier parts of Africa and India.
Seed grasses of millet

Cereal grass

Cereal grass has been around for a long time thousands of years. The Chinese honored the healing properties of wheat grass as far back as 2800 BC. The Romans and Egyptians has similar ceremonies for worshipping cereal grasses and grains.

Cereal grass is the young green plant which will grow to produce the cereal grain. All cereal grasses, including the green leaves of wheat, barley, rye, and oats are nutritionally identical.

Human consumption of cereal grass has increased dramatically in the last fifteen years, but most people have no idea of what cereal grass really is.

These young grasses are, in their chemical and nutritional composition, very different from the mature seed grains. Several growth stages are required for the development of nutritionally complete cereal grasses.

Because dehydrated cereal compares favorably with other greens with respect to both nutrients and cost, it is an excellent and convenient source of green food nutrients.

Researchers began investigating the properties of the young green leaves of cereal plants in the late 1920s.

In the middle of the 1930s, Dr George Kohler of University of Wisconsin discovered that the higher nutritional value of milk in summer came from the grass that the cows ate in the spring and summer.

In 1940, Dr George Kohler discovered that the young cereal grass fed to the dairy cows resulted in a much higher milk output. As a result, a physician in Kansas City gave dried cereal grass to pregnant women in danger of miscarriage with great success.

Dehydrated cereal grass was probably the first multivitamin on the market, appearing on pharmacists’ shelves in the late 1930s.

Cereal grass are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin K, folic acid, calcium, iron, protein, and fiber, as well as good sources of vitamin C, many of the B vitamins, and chlorophyll, with established antioxidant properties.

In addition, the cereal grasses were shown to contain unidentified factors which provide a variety of health, growth, and fertility benefits to animals and to humans.
Cereal grass