Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Coix lacryma-jobi
Pronounced Job's Tears: JOHBZ TEERZ. Yi Yi Ren: yee-yee-RUN (Mandarin, roughly ee-ee-run). Coix lacryma-jobi: KOH-iks la-KRIH-muh JOH-bee.
Cool, dry, and gently draining: a sweet, bland grain that strengthens the Spleen while percolating and draining dampness downward through the urine, clearing damp-heat, easing damp painful obstruction, and expelling pus.
Avoid in pregnancy (medicinal and therapeutic doses). Yi Yi Ren is classically contraindicated during pregnancy in the Chinese materia medica, and modern animal studies corroborate this: aqueous and oil extracts of coix seed stimulate uterine contraction and show embryotoxic, abortifacient activity in pregnant rodents. Avoid decoctions, powders, concentrated extracts, and the Kanglaite oil preparation throughout pregnancy. Culinary use of the plain grain is traditionally avoided in pregnancy as a precaution as well; incidental trace dietary amounts are a lesser concern, but regular or concentrated use should be avoided. Sources: Bensky, Clavey and Stoger, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (pregnancy contraindication for Coicis Semen); peer-reviewed animal uterine-stimulant and embryotoxicity studies of coix seed extracts; AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook precautionary framework.
Likely compatible in ordinary dietary amounts, but medicinal doses lack lactation safety data. Coix seed is a widely eaten cereal grain, and culinary amounts (congee, soups) are generally regarded as acceptable during breastfeeding. There are no controlled studies on transfer of coix constituents into breast milk or on effects in the nursing infant, and no lactation data exist for concentrated extracts such as Kanglaite. The prudent course is to treat food-grade use as reasonable while avoiding concentrated therapeutic doses and extracts during breastfeeding unless directed by a qualified practitioner. Source: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, Mills and Bone, and Brinker precautionary framework; no NCCIH lactation entry.
Food-grade and gentle. The cooked grain (congee, soups, adlay porridge) is a traditional food for children across East and Southeast Asia and is generally safe in dietary amounts. No established pediatric medicinal dosing exists; use decoctions and concentrated preparations only at reduced, weight-appropriate doses under qualified supervision. Because it is cool and draining, it should not be given long-term to cold, weak, or fluid-depleted children. Source: traditional dietary use; AHPA and Mills and Bone precautionary framework.
Job's tears is one of the gentlest herbs in the materia medica, a food-grade cereal grain eaten daily across East and Southeast Asia, with a very low toxicity profile. Its cautions are mostly functional. Its most important caution is pregnancy: it is classically contraindicated in pregnancy and has demonstrated uterine-stimulant and embryotoxic activity in animal studies, so it should be avoided in medicinal doses during pregnancy (see safety fields). Because it drains fluid and promotes urination, it can aggravate dryness, constipation, and fluid depletion in yin-, blood-, or fluid-deficient, dry, or dehydrated people, and it is not indicated in spleen deficiency without dampness. Its documented hypoglycemic activity means it can lower blood sugar, a consideration for diabetics on glucose-lowering drugs. Doses are large and gentle (often 15 to 30 g or more) because the herb is bland and mild, and the raw versus dry-fried distinction matters clinically (raw to drain and expel pus, roasted to strengthen the Spleen and stop diarrhea). Serious causes of edema, purulent cough, or acute abdominal pain must be evaluated medically rather than self-treated.
Pregnancy (medicinal and therapeutic doses), on the classical contraindication and modern uterine-stimulant/abortifacient animal data. Yin, blood, and body-fluid deficiency, dryness, and dehydration, and spleen deficiency without dampness, in which its cool, draining, urine-promoting action is depleting. Cold, weak, deficient constitutions used long-term. Diabetes managed with hypoglycemic drugs, where its blood-sugar-lowering effect may be additive (monitor glucose). Undiagnosed or severe edema, a suspected lung abscess with hemoptysis or high fever, or acute severe abdominal pain (possible appendicitis) call for medical evaluation, not self-treatment (see refer threshold). Known hypersensitivity to the grain.
Not a species of conservation concern. The medicinal variety (var. ma-yuen) is a widely cultivated cereal grain (adlay) grown as a food and crop across China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia, so supply is abundant and agricultural rather than wild-harvested. The plant is also naturalized to the point of being weedy in parts of the tropics. Prefer food-grade cultivated var. ma-yuen from reputable suppliers over the hard-shelled ornamental wild type, and buy the seed as a grain rather than as a wild-collected botanical.
Not a plant of the biblical Near East and not named in canonical Scripture. The English name 'Job's Tears' is a folk descriptor for the hard, tear-shaped bracts of the wild plant (long strung as beads and rosaries) and is not a reference to the biblical Job or to any scriptural text. Coix lacryma-jobi is native to tropical and subtropical Asia and belongs to the Chinese and broader East and Southeast Asian medical and food traditions rather than the Mediterranean-biblical one. It is a classical Chinese materia medica herb documented from the Shennong Ben Cao Jing onward. Included here as an honestly sourced cross-traditional entry from the Chinese canon.
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