Barley has been used by humans for thousands of years, mainly as a cereal crop but also as the base of fermented products such as beer. The ancient Egyptians, Romans and Vikings all used Barley, and Columbus carried it to the Americas in 1493. During the early Twentieth Century American agricultural research into beneficial foodstuffs discovered that the grass, or leafy growth of the young Barley plant, serves as a high-performance food for both livestock and humans.Barley, or Hordeum, is a grass with many varieties, both wild and domesticated. However, Barley grass as we know it comes from Hordeum vulgare, the Barley cultivated most commonly in agriculture. Known for the wide range of its nutrition, Barley grass is a good source of Vitamin A, Folic acid and the magnesium-rich green pigment Chlorophyll.