Other starch-yielding plants

Cassava

Cassava, often called manioc, is not a cereal but a tuber; however, it replaces cereals in certain countries, supplying the carbohydrate content of the diet. The botanical name is Manihot esculenta, and the plant is native to South America, especially Brazil. It is now grown in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and parts of Africa. A valuable source of starch, cassava is familiar in many developed countries in a granular form known as tapioca.

Easily cultivated and curiously immune to most food-crop pests, cassava is a staple crop in several areas of Latin America. The actual tubers may weigh up to 14 kilograms (30 pounds). Some tubers may be bitter and contain dangerously large amounts of prussic acid.

Dry milling of cassava is rarely practiced because it yields a product inferior to wet-processed starch in which the tubers are crushed or rasped with water and the starch is permitted to settle. Wet starch is dried to a point where it can be crumbled by pressing it through metal plates (or sieves). This crumbled material is subjected to a rotary motion, sometimes carried out on canvas cloth fastened to cradle-shaped frames. Another method is to tumble the material in revolving steam-jacketed cylinders so that the particles assume a round pellet form and are partially gelatinized as they dry. Sun drying is employed in both homes and small mills.

Many tapioca factories and mills are equipped with modern raspers, special shaking or rotating sieves, and settling tanks of various types; but some fermentation takes place, and small rural mills can often be identified by the smell of butyric acid. In larger mills, centrifuges are replacing the settling tanks.

For its various industrial uses, the tuber usually goes under its alternative name, manioc. It is used in the textile industries, explosives manufacture, leather tanning, and production of glues and dextrins and alcohol.

Fresh cassava leaves are rich in protein, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Their prussic acid level must be reduced to safe limits by boiling; the duration of boiling depends on the variety of the leaves. Cassava leaves are a popular vegetable in Africa, and the tuber also is used in meal for animal feed.

Soybean

Soybean (Glycine max) is not a cereal but a legume; because of its widespread use in the baking industry, it may appropriately be dealt with here. Soybean provides protein of high biological value. Although Asia is its original source, the United States became the major world producer in the late 20th century.

The valuable oil of the soybean, widely used in industry, is extracted either by solvents or by expellers. The amino acid distribution of soy protein is more like that found in animal protein than the protein from most vegetable sources; for example, lysine comprises about 5.4 percent. The oil content includes useful amounts of phosphorus; the phosphatide content of soy flour is about 2 percent and is a mixture of lecithin and cephalin. The low carbohydrate content exists mainly as sugars. The Table shows the amino acid composition of soy protein.

Although soybeans are a good source of thiamine, much of this may be lost in processing. Average vitamin contents of soybean (as micrograms per gram) are as follows: thiamine 12, riboflavin 3.5, nicotinic acid 23, pyridoxine 8, pantothenic acid 15, and biotin 0.7.

The bulk of the soybean produced in the United States is used for animal feed; the Asian crop goes principally for human diet.

Soybean milk is produced and used in the fresh state in China and as a condensed milk in Japan. In both of these preparations, certain antinutritive factors (antitrypsin and soyin) are largely removed. In the Western world most soy products are treated chemically or by heat to remove these antinutritive factors along with the unpopular beany taste. Such processing affects the enzymatic activity in the milk.

Soybean is milled to produce soy flour. The flour is often used in a proportion of less than 1 percent in bakery operations. It stiffens doughs and helps to maintain crumb softness. Unprocessed soy flour, because of its lipoxidase enzyme system, is employed with high-speed mixing to bleach the flour in a dough.

In addition to their use in bread, soy products are used in confectionery, biscuits, macaroni, infant and invalid foods, ice cream, chocolate, sausages, sauces, lemon curd, mayonnaise, meat and fish pastes, certain diabetic foods, and in such nonfood products as paint, paper, textiles, and plastics.

A recent development is the isolation of the soybean proteins for use as emulsifiers and binders in meat products and substitutes. Enzyme-modified proteins provide useful egg-albumen supplement for whipped products.

Buckwheat

Botanically, buckwheat is not a cereal but the fruit of Fagopyrum esculentum. Its name is probably derived from its resemblance to beechnut. Believed to have originated in China, the plant grows to a height of about one metre and thrives best in cool, moist climates, although it does not easily tolerate frost. It can be grown on a wide range of soils, and a crop can be obtained within 10–12 weeks of sowing. The seed is dark brown in colour and often triangular in shape. It contains about 60 percent carbohydrate, 10 percent protein, and 15 percent fibre. A white flour can be obtained from the seeds (buckwheat cakes and pancakes are popular in certain areas), and buckwheat meal is also used in animal feed. The whole seed may be fed to poultry and game birds. There is some medical interest in buckwheat as a source of rutin, possibly effective in treatment of increased capillary fragility associated with hypertension in humans.