Highland barley is a type of barley, also known as naked barley and Yuanmai. It is mainly produced in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places in my country and is the main food of the Tibetan people.
Qiang Xiaolin, director of the Agricultural Research Institute of the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences, revealed: After more than 10 years of research, my country has discovered for the first time that the β-glucan content is as high as 8.62% in the new highland barley variety "Tibetan Qing 25" , is currently the wheat crop with the highest β-glucan content in the world, which means that high-quality highland barley is expected to become the most valuable wheat crop.
As early as the late 1980s, American scientists discovered that β-glucan in barley, especially naked barley (highland barley), has the effect of lowering blood fat, lowering cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular disease. Later, β-glucan - The functions of glucan in regulating blood sugar, improving immunity, and anti-tumor have been discovered one after another, attracting widespread attention around the world. At present, the biomedical community generally believes that β-glucan has four major physiological functions: cleansing the intestines, regulating blood sugar, lowering cholesterol, and improving immunity. Some experts also believe that β-glucan has research value in studying anti-cancer effects.
According to relevant authoritative scientific research data, at present, the average beta-glucan content of domestic wheat crops is 4.22%, with the highest being only 5.9%; the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and other foreign countries The β-glucan content of thousands of varieties of wheat crops averages below 5%, and the highest does not exceed 7%. This time, Chinese scientists discovered that the β-glucan content of “Tibetan Qing 25” broke the world record. It has undoubtedly injected a boost into my country's highland barley industry.
Since the Tibet Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the School of Life Sciences of Zhejiang University took the lead in breeding barley as the raw material for β-glucan in China, they have now conducted a pilot test of extracting β-glucan from highland barley. The results proved that highland barley Extracting β-glucan can be produced on a large scale. The overall development plan of the project has been established, and it is planned to invest hundreds of millions of yuan to establish a special highland barley raw material production base, an industrialization technology research base and a comprehensive food and drug demonstration processing base. It plans to complete 10 special technology research and development, and has trial-produced and developed "highland barley lipid-lowering capsules" , "Highland Barley Tea", "Highland Barley Biscuits" and other new products are currently undergoing registration and approval of technology patents and new products.
With the major discovery that the beta-glucan content of highland barley is the highest in the world, in recent years, my country's main highland barley producing areas have given full play to their resource advantages and stepped up the development of characteristic industrialization in accordance with market demand. Nowadays, more and more highland barley enterprises and highland barley products have emerged on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the industrial development of highland barley has been fully launched.
According to the reporter’s investigation, as the market for highland barley processed products continues to expand, companies in Tibet, Qinghai, and Yunnan have begun to develop products such as “highland barley instant noodles” and “highland barley biscuits.”
Tibet is one of the main highland barley producing areas in my country. Currently, the Tibetan highland barley planting area remains at about 130,000 hectares, accounting for 58% of the total cultivated area, and the annual highland barley output reaches about 600,000 tons. In recent years, as scientific and technological experts have confirmed the nutritional and health-care functions of highland barley, as well as the huge market development potential of highland barley, Tibet has strived for a national investment of 30 million yuan to build highland barley bases and built my country's first highland barley base in 5 regions and 10 major agricultural counties. It is a high-quality highland barley production base and has established 30,000 acres of highland barley beer and highland barley nutritional oatmeal raw material bases, mainly in Lhasa and Shigatse.
Today, many companies in our country have invested in the industrial development of highland barley. In 1999, Tibet Holy Valley Highland Barley Food Development Company successfully developed highland barley oatmeal based on technology from the Jiangsu and Guangdong Provincial Food Research Institutes, and will successively launch 8 new highland barley foods according to market demand; in October 2001, Lhasa The brewery successfully developed highland barley beer with an excellent grade of 11° and a fermentation degree of up to 69°, brewing highland barley beer for the first time in China. In August 2004, Tibet Golden Land Industrial Co., Ltd. was formally established in Lhasa. The company has currently invested more than 50 million yuan in the development of highland barley series products. At present, it has launched highland barley products such as highland barley noodles, highland barley steamed buns, and highland barley nutritional powder.