Hanjeli utilization as a functional food to support food sovereignance

Abstract

Abstract The agricultural sector is currently still become the prime mainstay in national development. It is closely related to manifest and maintain the food sovereignty, provide employment, supporting community welfare, and become the source of various industrial raw material. One of the potentially developed agricultural product is ‘indeterminate’ cereals, named Hanjeli (Coix lacrimo-jobi L.). The plant has some advantages such as tolerance to drought and marginal soil conditions. The grains containing calcium, carbohydrates, fats, high protein, fiber, calcium minerals, phosphorus, iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Amino acids contained in hanjeli grains consist of amino acids tyrosine, arginine, histidine, glutamate acid, lysine and leucine. Hanjeli has a good prospect to be developed as a substitute for rice and to be processed into prestigious food (functional food). The increasing role of non-rice local food is able to substitute or complement rice or wheat through the development of processing technology for non-rice local food products, both in terms of product diversity and taste, packaging, size, etc. In addition of being consumed by the farmers themselves, hanjeli rice and hanjeli flour can be marketed as functional food products. The availability of superior and local varieties, processing technology, and knowledge about the benefits of functional food play an important role in the development of hanjeli as a future healthy food.