Yoshide Hagawara MD, the pioneer researcher and promoter of the powdered extract of young barley grass thought he was providing a healthy “fast food”. He was not prepared for what happened. He began to receive letters from grateful people who had been helped–in some cases cured of asthma, eczema and other skin conditions, reduced potency, arthritis, constipation, gastritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, hepatitis, cancer and more. In commenting on the diversity of conditions treatable with barley juice, Dr. Hagawara noted: “Obviously, a substance which is as effective against obesity and eczema as it is against heart disease and cancer, is either a ‘miracle drug’ beyond belief, or no drug at all, but something which fosters the one true healing miracle –the body’s ability to cure itself.”
Dr. Hagawara had been influenced by the father of Chinese Medicine, Shin Huange-ti, who had the same message as Hippocrates. “It’s the diet which maintains true health and becomes the best drug.” Dr Hagawara was aware of something else: Healthy green plants are “the most marvelous expression of vitality on the planet.” He set out to harness that vitality with the juice from green plants. He realized that to be accepted, these juices had to be palatable, convenient, storable, and processed to preserve the nutrients and enzymes that give them their vitality. He decided on the young barley plant because its juice was palatable. He developed a process of spray-drying the juice into a fine green powder at slightly above room temperature to maintain the live enzymes and other nutrients as they would be in fresh juice.