"Rice has played a pivotal role in the evolution of human history. This season, a batch of nutritive launches features extracts from the versatile cereal grain.

Rice has sustained cultures in Asia, Africa, India and the Americas and is a staple food for more than half the earth’s population.

The first documented evidence of rice’s existence is from about 2800 B.C. as a decree authorizing rice planting by a Chinese emperor. From there, rice plants traveled the world. According to Judith Carney, author of Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas, West Africans first domesticated rice some 3,500 years ago and the grain arrived on American shores only around 1680. (Carney adds that First Lady Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather was an enslaved rice grower until the Civil War.)

Throughout many parts of Asia, rice hulls were used as construction material and for rope and papermaking. Rice bran oil, rich in vitamin E, squalene and micronutrients, has a nutty taste, and is often used for cooking, heralded for its cholesterol-reducing abilities. Rice is also used to make various beers, wines, sake and a Japanese desert called mochi.

Because rice flour is starch free, it is particularly popular for infant formulas and cosmetics. Around 1900, rice powder replaced the alabaster-hued, lead-based makeup used by geishas. Since then, it’s become a beauty staple. Rice bran also serves as a good moisturizer and exfoliant, because it improves blood circulation, promotes cell turnover and reduces dark circles with its antioxidant properties."

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