Rice

Rice – A brief introduction
Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As an edible starchy cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production (rice, 741.5 million tonnes in 2014), after sugarcane (1.9 billion tonnes) and maize (1.0 billion tonnes).

Rice is an annual plant that is harvested once a year. The cultivation of rice is suited for countries with low labor costs and high rainfall as it is very labor intensive and requires large amounts of water for cultivation.

Methods of growing differ greatly in different localities, but in most Asian countries the traditional hand methods of cultivating and harvesting rice are still practiced.

The fields are prepared by
a. Plowing (typically with simple plows drawn by water buffalo)
b. Fertilizing (usually with dung or sewage)
c. Smoothing (by dragging a log over them)

The seedlings are started in seedling beds and, after 30 to 50 days, are transplanted by hand to the fields, which have been flooded by rain or river water. During the growing season, irrigation is maintained by dike-controlled canals or by hand watering. The fields are allowed to drain before cutting.

Rice when it is still covered by the brown hull is known as paddy; rice fields are also called paddy fields or rice paddies. Rice is threshed to loosen the hulls—mainly by flailing, treading, or working in a mortar—and winnowed free of chaff by tossing it in the air above a sheet or mat.

Paddy - Origin and History
Rice, Oryzae Sativa, also called paddy rice is intimately involved in the culture as well as the food ways and economy of many societies. Tradition holds that precious things are not pearls and jade but “five grains” of which paddy rice is the first. Among the major cereals, paddy rice is the primary staple food for more than two million people in Asia and hundreds of millions of people in Africa and in Latin America.

From our ancient scripts it is learnt that Indians knew paddy rice before the present era. According to some earlier workers like Decandolle (1886) and Watt (1862) the rice cultivation was originated in the South India. Vavillov suggested that India and Burma are centers of origin of cultivated rice.

The origins of paddy rice have been debated for sometime, but the plant is of such antiquity that the precise time and place of its first development will perhaps never be known.

Types of Paddy processing:
Raw Rice – White rice is a highly refined version of raw rice. The most commonly and widely consumed rice variety. However, milling takes away the significant parts of the grain i.e. bran along with germ there by the grains loose many nutrients and phytochemicals.

Parboiled Rice - Hydrothermal treatment ( Soaking, Steaming and Drying) is being given to the paddy before milling and that makes the grain partially cooked with the husk remain intact on it. Post hydrothermal treatment, the husk is removed. This enables various nutrients ( especially the B vitamins, thiamine and niacin) present in the bran to move out of it and integrate to the Endosperm/kernel thereby making it more nutritious. Parboiled rice is almost similar to brown rice when it comes to nutritional status. Parboiled rice has Low Glycemic Index ( which measures how quickly the body turns a food into sugar - Lower the GI better it is) and rich source of Vitamin B. Boiled rice is more healthy and more nutritionally beneficial compared to the raw white rice.

Steamed Rice - A special technology of improving the quality characteristics of rice. Raw rice soaked in water and then treated with hot steam under pressure. After that the grain is dried and polished. As a result of steaming grains of rice become amber-yellow hue and become translucent. Steamed rice has its advantages: in the processing of steam up to 80% of vitamins and minerals contained in the rice shell moved into the grain of rice, and the grains become less brittle. Yellow color of the steamed rice disappears at preparation, and it becomes a snow-white, like polished white rice. However cooking time of the steamed rice is 20-25 minutes due the fact that the grains become harder and slower boiled comparing to conventional rice. Steamed grain rice never sticks together after boiling, it also remains the same tasty and crisp, even after re-heating meals.

Golden Rice - Golden rice is a genetically modified rice plant (oriza sativa) which produces beta carotenoids a precursor of vitamin A in rice grain . The process is called biofortication i.e. increasing the nutritional value of eatables to overcome food shortage and deficiency. They introduced genes of natural beta carotenoid synthesizing gene i.e phytoene synthase (psy) and a bacterial phytoene desaturase (crt I) into the plants nuclear genome which promotes the formation of beta carotenoid in the rice grain which in natural plants only takes place in leaves. Thus we get vitamin rich rice with its characteristic yellow colour.

Brown Rice – Brown rice is whole-grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed; white rice is the same grain with the hull, bran layer, and cereal germ removed. Red rice, gold rice, and black rice (also called purple rice) are all whole rice, but with differently pigmented outer layers.

Varieties of Rice in India
Rice is a stable food in many countries around the world. For people in most Asian countries like India, china, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh rice is the main dish. While in the western countries it is used as a side dish. There are varieties of rice available in India. Let us see some varieties of rice available in India...

1. White Rice - The milling and polishing process of white rice removes most of the important vitamins and other nutrients. Rice should be fortified with important vitamins and mineral premixes. White rice is one of the easiest and quickest food to digest and requires only a hour to completely digest. So, it is great for relieving digestive disorders like diarrhea, dysentery, colitis, and even morning sickness. The body needs carbohydrates to function and white rice is the excellent sources of energy. Every 150g of rice has about 5grams of proteins. Rice powder is used for many purposes of making sweet and it is externally used as a soothing powder in cases of skin inflammation such as small-pox, prickly-heat, burns and scalds.

2. Brown Rice - Brown rice has several health benefits .however, it is not very commonly used in households because it is costlier than white rice. Brown rice is an excellent source of soluble fiber .it helps to lower the levels of bad LDL cholesterol in the blood. There is also some suggestions that the oil present in brown rice or extracted rice bran oil may help lower harmful cholesterol levels and blood pressure, whilst raising the levels of ‘healthy’ HDL cholesterol.

3. Jasmine Rice - Jasmine rice is subtler compared to normal basmati rice and in native to Thailand. It is a long grained rice just like the basmati rice, but comparatively stickier than most other long grained rice varieties. Jasmine rice is a rich source of insoluble fiber that aids in digestion and helps in flushing out food effectively through the gastrointestinal tract. These nutrients are also beneficial in improving and maintaining good skin health. Jasmine rice contains complex carbohydrates that help in providing instant energy.

4. Basmati Rice – Basmati is a variety of long, slender-grained aromatic rice which is traditionally from the Indian subcontinent. As of 2014, India exported 65 percent of the overseas basmati rice market, while Pakistan accounted for the remainder, according to the Indian state-run Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. However, many countries use domestically grown basmati rice crops. "Basmati" derives from the Hindustani (बासमती), literally meaning “fragrant" (Sanskrit बासमती, bāsamatī). Basmati rice is believed to have been cultivated in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. The earliest extant work to mention basmati rice is Heer Ranjha (1766).

Basmati was introduced to the Middle East by Hindu traders. It remains not only an important part of various cuisine of the Indian subcontinent, but now is also used extensively in Persian, Arab, and other Middle Eastern cuisines as well. This type of rice are grown and exported by those from the Indian subcontinent.

India accounts for over 70% of the world's basmati rice production. A small portion of that is being grown organically. Organizations such as Kheti Virasat Mission are trying to increase the amount of basmati rice that is being grown in the Punjab in India.

Basmati is gluten-free and low in fat. It contains all eight essential amino acids, folic acid and is very low in sodium and has no cholesterol. Basmati tastes like no other rice on earth. Unlike ordinary long grain rice the light, fluffy texture of basmati long, slender grains offers a palate a totally experience in terms of mouth- feel and taste, distinctive, unique and slightly ‘nutty’. There are different variants of Basmati rice available in the market at varying costs. Just like all species of rice, basmati is available in white or brown versions. Basmati rice has a unique aroma. It consists of aroma twelve times more than the other types of rice. Basmati rice is also said to be nutritious and healthy. The areas of basmati rice production in India are in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. India's total basmati production for the July 2011–June 2012 crop year was 5 million tonnes. In India, Haryana is the major basmati rice cultivating state, producing more than 60 percent of the total basmati rice produced in India.

There are several varieties of basmati rice. Traditional Indian types include basmati 370, basmati 385, and basmati Ranbirsinghpura (R.S.Pura) & Gujjar Chack area in Jammu province situated at the Indo -Pak border in Jammu & Kashmir state of India. 1121 Extra Long Grain Rice - Scientists at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, used conventional plant breeding to produce a hybrid semi-dwarf plant which had most of the good features of traditional basmati (grain elongation, fragrance, alkali content). This hybrid was called Pusa Basmati-1 (PB1; also called "Todal", because the flower has awns); crop yield is up to twice as high as traditional varieties. Fragrant rice that are derived from basmati stock but are not true basmati varieties include PB2 (also called sugandh-2), PB3, and RS-10.

Adulteration in Basmati Rice
Difficulty in differentiating genuine basmati from other types of rice and the significant price difference between them has led fraudulent traders to adulterate basmati rice with crossbred basmati varieties and long-grain non-basmati varieties.

Rice, in general, is low in fat content and is also an excellent source of carbohydrates. As compared to white rice, basmati rice and brown rice have medium glycemic index. Basmati rice calories may vary slightly for both brown and white versions. There are so many dishes that are cooked with the help of above mentioned variety of rice which provides major health benefits. Above mentioned rice help us to prepare tasty foods like Biryani.

What is the difference between basmati rice and regular rice (both the brown and white versions)?

Basmati rice is a unique species of rice originating from India. Just like all species of rice, basmati is available in white or brown versions, depending on the extent of the milling process. Like jasmine rice, it has its own unique smell. In the case of basmati, this smell is due to the presence of a chemical called 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which is found in basmati rice at about 90 parts per billion. That's about 12 times more than in other types of rice, giving basmati its special aroma. Brown basmati rice is comparable to other types of brown rice in nutrient content (although it does contain about 20% more fiber compared to most other types of brown rice), and white basmati rice is comparable to other types of white rice. To understand more about the difference between brown basmati rice and white basmati rice, let's look at the difference between brown and white rice in general.

An important first question to ask about all rice—and for that matter, most foods—is how much it has been processed. In the case of rice, processing usually involves milling and polishing. The outermost layer of rice, called the hull, is removed to make brown rice. Brown rice is rice with the whole kernel intact and the kernel is still surrounded by all layers of bran.

To produce white rice, the bran layers of the rice have to be milled off. Most of the rice germ is also removed during this abrasive grinding process. At this point in the process the rice is called milled, unpolished white rice. Finally, a wire brush machine is used to remove the aleurone layer that remains on the rice. This step is called polishing. As polishing is not an all-or-nothing process, semi-polished rice may still contain parts of its aleurone layer.

The bran, germ, and aleurone layers of rice contain most of the fat content found in rice and are the source of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E as well as many other nutrients. If the high-fat components of the rice grain are left intact, the shelf life of the rice greatly declines; this is partly the motivation for manufacturers to remove the bran, germ, and aleurone layers of rice, although this process reduces its nutritional value.

There is a processing technique called conversion that results in "converted rice." Converted rice is produced by steaming the whole grain before milling, causing some of the B vitamins to migrate from the outside layers into the starchy center of the rice (called the endosperm). This process leaves some B vitamins inside the converted rice even though the manufacturers remove the outside layers. Yet, this version is still not your best choice; the most nutritious rice is always whole grain, minimally milled, and unpolished (or semi-polished)—whether it be basmati, jasmine, or "regular" rice—with its outer layers intact as you want a rice to feature its bran and germ when you enjoy it so that you can enjoy greater health benefits.

Length Grading of Rice
1. Head Rice
2. Super Rice
3. Dubaar Rice
3. Tibaar Rice
4. Mongra Rice
5. Mini Mongra Rice
6. Kinki Rice (Pin Broken)

What are the nutritional facts of rice?
Rice is a complex carbohydrate that does not have sodium or cholesterol and barely any fat. Brown rice is the most nutritional of the many different forms. Brown rice retains the bran because it is not milled like white rice that loses a lot of nutrients in the milling process; however it tends to be enriched to replace those lost nutrients.

Rice is the second highest worldwide production after maize (corn). Since maize is mostly grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is the most important grain for human consumption. There are more than 40,000 varieties of rice that grow on every continent except on Antarctica.

Heath Benefits of Rice
The health benefits of rice include its ability to provide instant energy, regulate and improve bowel movements, stabilize blood sugar levels, and slow down the aging process. It also plays a role in providing vitamin B1 to the human body. Other benefits include its ability to aid in skin care, boost the metabolism, aid in digestion, reduce high blood pressure, help in weight loss, boost the immune system, and provide protection against dysentery, cancer, and heart diseases. These benefits can be found in more than forty thousand varieties of this cereal available throughout the world. In a nutshell, eating rice can be beneficial of us in following reasons:

1. Provides Energy - Since rice is abundant in carbohydrates, it acts as fuel for the body and aids in the normal functioning of the brain. Carbohydrates are metabolized by the body and turned into functional, usable energy. The vitamins, minerals, and organic components in rice increase the functioning and metabolic activity of all your organ systems, which further increases energy levels.

2. Prevents Obesity - Eating rice is extremely beneficial for your health, simply because it does not contain harmful fats, cholesterol or sodium. It forms an integral part of a balanced diet. Any food that can provide nutrients without having any negative impacts on health is a bonus! Low levels of fat, cholesterol, and sodium also help to reduce obesity and associated conditions.

3. Controls Blood Pressure - Rice is low in sodium, so it is considered one of the best foods for those suffering from hypertension. Sodium can cause veins and arteries to constrict, increasing the stress and strain on the cardiovascular system as the blood pressure increases. This is also associated with heart conditions like atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and strokes, so avoiding excess sodium is always a good idea.

4. Prevents Cancer - Whole grain rice like brown rice is rich in insoluble fiber that can protect against many types of cancer. Many scientists and researchers believe that such insoluble fibers are vital for protecting the body against the development and metastasis of cancerous cells. Fiber is beneficial in defending against colorectal and intestinal cancer. However, besides fiber, it also has natural antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin A, phenolic and flavonoid compounds, which act as or stimulate antioxidants to scour the body from free radicals. Free radicals are by-products of cellular metabolism that can damage your organ systems and cause the mutation of healthy cells into cancerous ones. Boosting your antioxidant levels is a great idea, and eating more rice is a wonderful way to do that.