From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
The outer covering of grains, such as wheat and oats, removed during the milling process. The word "bran" springs from the Middle French word brenno, which means "unattested." An earlier Celtic word for bran was bren, which meant a broken or split coat of armor, which makes sense when you recognize that bran, in edible form, comes from a split outer cover. Until the 1980s, no one outside Asia had initiated any vital use for rice bran with the exception of animal food. But recently, in Louisiana's rice belt, farmers have begun cultivating many new marketable products from rice bran - particularly polyunsaturated oil, which is elevated in vitamin E and fiber and entirely allergen-free. The French call bran son, which means "ring", or "cover", while the Germans dub it "Kleie", and the Italians crusca, which may be translated as "rough stuff." The Spanish call it salvado, or "salvation", which illustrates their faith in the nutritional value of bran.
