At the base of each grain is the embryo, which is the part that will grow into an actual new plant. The innermost part is the rice kernel. This is made mainly of starch. Rice starch consists mainly 2 type of starches, amylose and amylopactin. The mixture of these 2 starches determines the cooking texture of the rice.
Rice is a very nutritious grain, especially brown rice.
It has high fiber, vitamin B, carbohydrate, protein etc. It has no gluten, so it is non-allergenic. In ancient time, people primarily ate steamed brown rice alone, which is much more healthy than processed rice as it still contains the bran layer. Indica rice is primarily produced in the warm climate belt, from Indochina, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Brazil and the Southern United States. Japonica is mostly grown in cold climate countries, such as Japan, Korea, northern China and parts of California.