Corn (Zea Mais L.) is an annual plant that belongs to the Poaceae family.

It is one of the most common food components. Grains are used for the preparation of bread, bakery products and flours.

Popcorn is made from the beans using an industrial process that heats them up until they burst, then adding salt.

Among the many products made from corn is corn starch, widely used in the food industry as a thickener for cakes, food gels, biscuits and corn flour widely used in bakery products.

The results of this study suggest that even though there were pigment losses, creole maize pigments show antioxidant and antimutagenic activities after nixtamalization process (1).

From corn they are industrially extracted:

• Fructose syrup or HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup)
• Glucose syrup
• Glucose-fructose syrup
• Maize syrup (unusual diction as the content should be specified, whether fructose or glucose. Glucose is sugar, so a component to be taken in moderation. Fructose is a low-calorie carbohydrate sweetener that, frankly, would be best avoided )

It has a low caloric content.

Suitable for coeliacs.

Also used for animal feed.

Genetically modified crops (GMCs) were first introduced to commercial agriculture in 1996, and approximately 181.5 million hectares of GMCs were grown worldwide in 2014. These GMCs have produced significant benefits over the past two decades (Clive, 2015). A recent meta-analysis by Klumper and Qaim concluded that the wide adoption of GM technology has reduced the usage of chemical pesticides, in addition to increasing crop yields to improve farmers' profits (Wilhelm and Matin, 2014). Despite the obvious positive effects of GMCs, public controversy over on the unintended, unexpected, and uncontrolled negative effects of GMCs are still ongoing. There is considerable concern that the introduction of exogenous DNA sequences and enzymes into the target plant genome in GMCs might result in unintended effects, and these negative effects may affect both human health and the environmental safety (Ioset et al., 2006). Therefore, determination of these potential unintended effects necessary and scientists should perform bio-assessment analyses to guarantee the safety of GMCs (1).

Corn studies

References__________________________________________________________________

(1) Mendoza-Díaz S, Ortiz-Valerio Mdel C, Castaño-Tostado E, Figueroa-Cárdenas Jde D, Reynoso-Camacho R, Ramos-Gómez M, Campos-Vega R, Loarca-Piña G.  Antioxidant capacity and antimutagenic activity of anthocyanin and carotenoid extracts from nixtamalized pigmented Creole maize races (Zea mays L.).   Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2012 Dec;67(4):442-9. doi: 10.1007/s11130-012-0326-9

(2) Tan Y, Yi X, Wang L, Peng C, Sun Y, Wang D, Zhang J, Guo A, Wang X.  -- Comparative Proteomics of Leaves from Phytase-Transgenic Maize and Its Non-transgenic Isogenic Variety.    Front Plant Sci. 2016 Aug