Cereals: value and benefits

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-02 13:48

Cereals have been a significant part of the human diet since ancient times. The list of main grain crops includes: rye, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, sorghum, millet, rice, corn. The cereal plant belongs to the class Monocots. They have a stem - straw, leaves have parallel venation, fibrous root, fruit - grain. All types of plants are divided into winter (they are sown in late summer or early autumn) and spring (sown in spring).

Cereals

Cereals (photo in text) are without exaggeration the most important group of cultivated plants. Grain is not only a food product for humans and farm animals, but also serves as a raw material for numerous industries.

In its composition, cereal grains contain:

• carbs;
• proteins;
• enzymes;
• vitamins PP, group B (B₁, B₂, B_{6), provitamin A.}

Wheat

Wheat comes to mind when you say "cereals". It is grown on all continents (except Antarctica). Nearly 140 million hectares of fertile land are occupied by its crops.

Modern breeding makes it possible to cultivate more than 4,000 varieties. In the steppes you can find 20 species of wild wheat. The birthplace of culture is southwest Asia: Palestine, Mesopotamia, Jordan, Syria.

Wheat is present in the daily diet of almost half of the world's inhabitants. Grain is used for flour, cereals and pasta. It is simply impossible to list all the products that can be made from processed wheat grain. Their diversity is impressive.

There are three main types:

• einkorn;
• dvuzernyanka (emmer);
• spelt.

They are the progenitors of all subspecies known today. Durum wheat varieties come from emmer. They are better adapted to dry climates. They are grown in the USA, Australia, Canada. Solid cereal goes to the production of pasta. Unsorted wheat is fed to livestock. Sowing belongs to the numerous spelled family. This is the main material for breeding new varieties.

Millet

Millet, although it belongs to the category of "cereals", is not used for baking bread. Grain goes to cereals, and cakes and bread are baked from flour. The homeland of this cereal is China and Mongolia. The Scythians cultivated millet as early as the 4th-5th centuries. Excavations in the Middle Dnieper region confirm this fact. ATIn ancient China, millet was listed as one of the five plants considered sacred.

Millet has a high protein content (more only in wheat). Millet grain is the smallest and hardest among cereals. The outer silicon shell is removed during grain processing (it is not digested in the human stomach). After that, the cereal is perfectly boiled soft and perfectly digested.

It is also valuable as a fodder crop. Millet is widely used in animal husbandry, especially in the poultry industry.

There are up to 500 species of this cereal. Millet perfectly tolerates both soil and air drought. An unpretentious and hardy plant requires only well-aerated soil - from it the roots use the air of breath. The yield reaches 18 centners per hectare. 12 million hectares are under crops.

Millet is divided into the following types of cereals:

• seed;
• chumiza;
• sorghum.

Sorghum

Sorghum is a cereal grain native to Africa. His wild ancestor was lost in past centuries, nothing is known for certain about him. In tropical countries, sorghum is an important cereal crop. Drought tolerance (sometimes referred to as a camel in the plant kingdom) and high yields make it unrivaled for dryland cultivation.

A feature of the culture is that when harvested for grain, the stems and leaves retain juicy greenery. This makes it possible to use sorghum for livestock feed in the form of silage or green mass.

It is curious that hybrid varieties of sorghum yield 40% more than the parent pair. This property is widely used to obtain record grain yields. Porridge is prepared from it, as from ordinary cereals. Flour is used to bake bread, pancakes and other floury foods.

Rye

Compared to wheat, rye is considered a younger grain crop. It was not found in the dwellings of our ancestors from the Stone Age. She was not in the tombs either.

Initially, rye acted as a weed in cultivated wheat crops. In the harsh conditions of the north and the highlands, wheat gave a poor harvest and died. Rye, on the other hand, endured harsh conditions very well. Over time, it has evolved into a cultivated cereal.

Even in the first century, the scientist Pliny from Rome gave her the following description: heavy, dark flour, poor quality bread, suitable only for satisfying hunger. Nevertheless, the nutritional value of rye flour products is high.

Currently cultivated mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. Cultivated up to 8 species in Asia, Europe and Africa. There are spring and winter varieties of this plant. The yield reaches 2 tons per hectare. In addition to being a grain crop that gives excellent yields, rye is used as a natural leavening agent. The roots of the plant, well branched, penetrate deep into the soil, grow intensively and loosen the fertile layer.

Unpretentious culture can grow on poor soils. A feature of rye is its ability to grow well in highlands. Rye is found in the Alpseven at an altitude of 2000 meters.

From the flour of this cereal, you can bake not only bread, but also delicious pastries, the main thing is that the flour is of good quality. Relatively cheap to produce, the crop is also used to feed farm animals.

Corn

Corn, or maize, is an annual cereal. The birthplace of this amazing plant is South and Central America. Culture arrived on the European continent at the end of the fifteenth century.

Corn stands out from all known cereals with its gigantic growth. The variety "horse tooth" can grow up to 5 meters. The largest crops are harvested in the homeland of corn. The mild warm climate and abundant rainfall are the best for its cultivation.

Modern breeding offers grain and fodder varieties. To date, nine botanical groups are known:

• dentate;
• bursting;
• siliceous;
• semi-tooth (most common);
• starchy;
• sugar;
• starchy-sugar;
• membranous (practically not grown);
• waxy (small areas of cultivation).

Rice

Presumably the birthplace of rice is India. It has been cultivated there for thousands of years. It has been known in Europe since the 8th century BC, in Central Asia since the 2nd-3rd centuries BC, and in America since the 15th-16th. Scientists tend to believe that it was rice that was the very first crop bred by man.

This cereal has up to 20species, more than one thousand of its varieties are known. But all this variety is divided into three types according to the shape of the grain:

• long grain;
• round-grained;
• medium grain.

Every year, breeders bring out new types of plants. The need for a high yielding and hardy variety is very high. This is due to the fact that more than half of the world's population consider rice the main food in their diet. No wonder it is called white gold and the second bread (although bread is not baked from it).

Rice is cultivated in countries with a tropical climate. This requires a special technology. The main thing for culture is abundant watering and warmth. Water plays a crucial role, because the cultivation itself takes place in fields flooded with water.

Barley

Along with wheat, barley is the oldest cereal on the planet. Mention of it was found in different cultures of the peoples of Europe, Central and Western Asia, in Egypt.

Like wheat, it is represented on all continents of the planet. The plant is cultivated in tropical regions and in northern regions. Barley is called the most "northern" cereal. It can be found up to 70 latitude (in Norway). It also grows in mountainous conditions:

• up to 1900m in the Alps;
• at an altitude of up to 2700 m in the Caucasus;
• at an altitude of up to 3050 m in the Hindu Kush;
• at an altitude of up to 4700 m in Tibet.

Barley is picky about soils. Acidic and sandy areas are not suitable for its cultivation. Too wet or waterlogged areas carry the risk of freezing the crop. In gener althe quality of the grain itself largely depends on the processing of the fertile layer. Currently, about 30 plant species are known. There are winter and spring varieties.

Oats

It is believed that oats were first cultivated in Europe. The wild crop is very sensitive to cold, so scientists believe that it cannot be a direct ancestor of modern oats. There is a theory that all cereals originated in Atlantis, the sunken continent.

Today there are about 25 types of oats. It is a very he althy food product. A small content of fat in the grain contributes to the unloading of cholesterol metabolism. This provides protection for the heart and circulatory system, and prevents atherosclerosis.

In agriculture, grain is used in its pure form for feeding various types of animals or as a component in feed mixtures.