Glutinous rice
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Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia. It has opaque grains, very low amylose content. It is especially sticky when cooked. It is widely eaten in Asia.
It is called glutinous (Latin: glūtinōsus)[1] in the sense of being glue-like or sticky. It does not contain gluten. While often called sticky rice, it differs from non-glutinous strains of japonica rice, which also become sticky to some degree when cooked. There are numerous cultivars of glutinous rice, which include japonica, indica and tropical japonica strains.
Cultivation
[change | change source]Glutinous rice is grown in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Northeast India, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. About 85% of Lao rice production is of this type.[2]
As of 2013, approximately 6,530 glutinous rice varieties were collected from five continents (Asia, South America, North America, Europe, and Africa) where glutinous rice is grown for preservation at the International Rice Genebank.[3] The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has described Laos as a "collector's paradise". Laos has the largest biodiversity of sticky rice in the world. IRRI-trained collectors gathered more than 13,500 samples and 3,200 varieties from Laos.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "glutinous, a." Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition. 1989. Online edition. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ↑ Delforge, Isabelle (2001). "Laos at the crossroads".
- ↑ Sattaka, Patcha (2016-12-27). "Geographical Distribution of Glutinous Rice in the Greater Mekong Sub-region". Journal of Mekong Societies. 12 (3): 27–48. ISSN 2697-6056.