So far, there are lots of paper reported the nutritional composition of mature barley and de hulled barley, but little research on premature barley. For the purpose of exploring nutritional potential of premature barley, we analyzed the nutritional status of premature green, mature yellow, and de hulled barley grown in the Jeollabuk-Do Agricultural Research & Extension Services (Iksan, Korea). Compared to de hulled and mature barley, premature barley contained higher amounts of lysine (41.46 mg g(-1) protein), total essential amino acids (351.75 mg g(-1) protein), vitamin C (0.93 mg 100g(-1) DW), vitamin B-2 (0.10 mg 100g(-1) DW), and vitamin B3 (2.16 mg 100g(-1) DW), and) beta-carotene (69.79 mu g 100g(-1) DW) was only detected in premature barley. Statistically higher quantities of Na and K were present in premature barley compared to the other two grain-types (P <= 0.05), whereas mature barley contained the highest amount of P and Fe (P <= 0.05). All three grain types contained similar levels of Ca and Cu. Mature barley contained the highest betaine and choline (49.44 mg 100 g(-1) DW and 34.61 mg 100 g(-1) DW, respectively). The results indicate that premature barley is nutritionally superior to de hulled barley.