A scoop of fluffy khao (rice) cleans the palate, lines the stomach and energises the muscles, but it's no mere bland starch to complement vigorous Thai spices like lemongrass, turmeric or kaffir lime. Those and other effacious herbs are now migrating from recipes to therapies in the current revival of traditional healing, which draws upon ancient folk knowledge. And thanks to its health-giving properties, Khao Hom Mali is the latest hot Thai botanical to leap from kitchen to spa, field to facial, Latin genus to Thai brand name.

The nutritious value of Thai Jasmine rice isn't a sudden scientific revelation, though modern laboratories are confirming much of the lore that villagers have passed down for centuries.

Khao Hom Mali  is rich in vitamins essential to mental and physical well-being, including vitamins A, B, D, E and K, plus minerals, trace elements and fatty acids to assist in oxidation of body tissue and cell repair. It's a particularly reliable source of vitamin B, which has a calming and recuperative influence. Stressed-out westerners increasingly take B supplements, many branded specifically for hyper-busy people like executives. So could it be that the famously unhurried Thai sabai sensibility is partly down to the staple diet?

Khao Hom Mali comes in white, brown, black, and red varieties. Unmilled red jasmine rice was historically part of the staple diet in rural agricultural communities. Polished white jasmine grains (Khao chao) were served exclusively in the royal courts but the practice has long since spread nationwide as the favoured complement to Central Thai cuisine.

With goodness concentrated in the bran that sheaths the grain, unmilled rice is actually better for you. The bran is fibrous and as well as providing dietary roughage, it can absorb saturated fats from the coconut milk or coconut cream found in a plethora of Thai dishes. Hence Thai Jasmine rice, in combination with other dishes, especially gaeng (curry) containing the fat-absorbing makeua puang (pea eggplant), offers some measure of protection from coronary diseases.

Rice is most nutrient-packed when unripe, and 'rice milk' pressings of the green rice shoots were fed to infants. Another bygone baby food was the smooth liquid residues drained from partly cooked rice (nam um), also given as a tonic to those nursing an illness or hangover. Another kind of rice water, nam sao khao - washings from the first rinsing of grains before cooking - can transfer its goodness through human skin. Siamese apparently used it as a shampoo and achieved facial rejuvenation by enveloping the head over a bowl of steaming nam sao khao, in an earlier incarnation of today's 'home spa' concept.

Now Khao Hom Mali  is finding a niche at Thailand's world-class spas. And it's not just via unmilled rice being featured in spa menus, heralding its return into today's health-conscious diet. Rice has become a skin therapy.

Aromatherapy massage using essential oil from jasmine rice bran not only imparts its relaxing signature scent, but is an effective way of delivering Vitamin E, of which three kinds (tocopherol, tocotrienol and oryzanol) are found only in rice. A key to maintaining youthfulness and beauty, E is noted for moisturising, anti-oxidation and sun shielding. Rice bran oil is the core active ingredient in the handsome export range of Thann grooming concoctions from Harn Products, and a major component of stylish Erb Thai Herbal Spa creams, scrubs and oils sold internationally by Palama-lapa.

Just how much oil can you squeeze from a rice grain, though? Using it in bulk would consume entire granaries. Hence Harn supplements its soaps, bath-cum-massage oils and body milk with other lubricants, astringents, anti-septics and anti-bacterials derived from Thai herbs and spices.

To overcome that volume dilemma for its HOFVS brand toiletries, Pato Green turned to nam sao khao. Soluble in either water or oil, the substance moisturises as it cleans, supposedly optimising the body's cell processes without irritation. HOVFS uses white rice for normal skin, but red (higher in vitamin E) for dry skin sufferers, and a less potent 'Tri Rong' (three colour) mix of white, red and brown rice for managing oily complexions. Black 'Hom Nin' jasmine rice (bursting with A, B and E) is more suited to shampoo. Brown jasmine rice, heavy in A and B, joins the other three varieties in HOVFS body scrub, the dried grains ground to varying roughness. Pato Green's currently testing the potential of nam sao khao in lotions and creams.

Renewed interest in the health properties of Khao Hom Mali and other Thai plants is not only timely for saving rice-strain diversity and turning endangered folk wisdom into a research pool for burgeoning industries. It brings new appreciation for the way rice has shaped Thai society, beliefs and landscape - a heritage under threat. The United Nations has designated 2004 the International Year of Rice to spread awareness that this precious grain is more than just the staple food of over half of humanity. To celebrate, the Thai Rice Foundation will focus on rice in arts and customs, and out of this cross-germination of the practical, the cultural and the edible, yet more applications of Khao Hom Mali  will doubtless grow.

Contact information:

Palama-lapa
590/6 Charansanitwong Soi 41,
Bangkok 10700
Tel: +66 (0) 2886 0352
E-mail: erbasia@cscoms.com
Web site: www.erbasia.com

Harn Products
22nd Fl., Sorachai Building, 23/95-97 Sukhumvit 63 Rd., North Klongtan,
Wattana Bangkok 10110 Thailand
Tel: +66 (0) 2714-3244, (0) 2714-3239-46
Fax: +66 (0) 2714-3247
E-mail: info@harnn.com
Web site: www.harnn.com

Pato Green
85/59 Lad prao Soi 94,
Bangkok 10310
Tel: +66 (0) 2935 2323

P Green Herb
83/116-117 Soi Shinkate,
2 Ngamwongwan Road,
Bangkok 10210
Tel: +66 (0) 2589 6622)

Links:
http://www.asiarice.org/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Philip Cornwel-Smith
An arts, entertainment and travel journalist and editor for 14 years, he became the founding editor of Bangkok Metro in 1994, Thailand's first and still leading city listings magazine. After eight years of writing about culture and lifestyle from an unbiased consumer standpoint - and helping to found the independent Metro Awards - he went freelance after seeing through Metro's redesign.

Alongside doing writing and location consultancy, Philip is now the editor of an all-new guidebook, the Time Out Guide to Bangkok, Chiang Mai & the Islands, to be launched in 2003. A decade earlier, Philip was deputy editor of the award-winning Time Out London and Amsterdam guides. In the meantime, he has contributed to various international publications and broadcasting projects, and written much of the bestselling Eyewitness Guide to Thailand. Later this year, Philip will appear on Discovery Channel in Europe hosting a segment of a travel magazine show for Noodle Box Productions.