Maize

Maize (/meɪz/; Zea mays), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass
that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about
9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes
in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or
tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known
as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other
varieties can be of many colors.

Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since the Columbian exchange, it has become a
staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of
wheat and rice. Much maize is used for animal feed, whether as grain or as the whole plant,
which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage. Sugar-rich varieties called
sweet corn are grown for human consumption, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed,
for uses such as cornmeal or masa, corn starch, corn syrup, pressing into corn oil, alcoholic
beverages like bourbon whiskey, and as chemical feedstocks including ethanol and other
biofuels.

Maize is cultivated throughout the world; a greater weight of maize is produced each year than
any other grain. In 2020, world production was 1.1 billion tonnes. It is afflicted by many pests and
diseases; two major insect pests, European corn borer and corn rootworms, have each caused
annual losses of a billion dollars in the US. Modern plant breeding has greatly increased output
and qualities such as nutrition, drought tolerance, and tolerance of pests and diseases. Much
maize is now genetically modified.

As a food, maize is used to make a wide variety of dishes including Mexican tortillas and
tamales, Italian polenta, and American hominy grits. Maize protein is low in some essential
amino acids, and the niacin it contains only becomes available if freed by alkali treatment. In pre-
Columbian Mesoamerica, maize was deified as a maize god and depicted in sculptures.
History Maize

Pre-Columbian development

Ancient Mesoamerican relief sculpture of

maize, National Museum of Anthropology
of Mexico

Maize requires human intervention for its

propagation. The kernels of its naturally-propagating
Includes male and female flowers
teosinte ancestor fall off the cob on their own, while
those of domesticated maize do not.[2] All maize Conservation status
arose from a single domestication in southern
Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The oldest surviving
maize types are those of the Mexican highlands.
Maize spread from this region to the lowlands and Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
over the Americas along two major paths.[3] The
centre of domestication was most likely the Balsas Scientific classification

River valley of south-central Mexico.[4] Maize reached Kingdom: Plantae

[5]
highland Ecuador at least 8000 years ago. It
reached lower Central America by 7600 years ago, Clade: Tracheophytes
and the valleys of the Colombian Andes between
Clade: Angiosperms
7000 and 6000 years ago.[4]
Clade: Monocots
The earliest maize plants grew a single, small ear per
plant.[6] The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in Clade: Commelinids
numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica; they
Order: Poales
cooked, ground and processed it through
nixtamalization.[7] By 3000 years ago, maize was Family: Poaceae
central to Olmec culture, including their calendar,
Subfamily: Panicoideae
language, and myths.[8]

Genus: Zea
The Mapuche people of south-central Chile cultivated
maize along with quinoa and potatoes in pre-
Hispanic times.[9] Before the expansion of the Inca Species: Z. mays
Empire, maize was traded and transported as far
south as 40° S in Melinquina, Lácar Department, Binomial name

Argentina, probably brought across the Andes from

Zea mays
Chile.[10] L.

Columbian exchange

Cultivation of maize, illustrated in

the 16th-century Florentine Codex

After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and
traders carried it back to Europe. Spanish settlers much preferred wheat bread to maize. Maize
flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief at that
time only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into the body of Christ.[11]

Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was
cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West
Africa, the Philippines and elsewhere.[11][12] By the 17th century, it was a common peasant food
in Southern Europe. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian
peasantry, especially as polenta in Italy.[13]

When maize was introduced into Western farming systems, it was welcomed for its productivity.
However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever it had become a staple
food.[14] Indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water – made with ashes and
lime – since at least 1200–1500 BC, creating the process of nixtamalization. They did this to
liberate the corn hulls, but coincidentally it also liberated the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which
caused pellagra.[15] Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied,
pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high-lysine maize and the
promotion of a more balanced diet have contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists in food-
poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize.[16]

Names

The name maize derives from the Spanish form maíz of the Taíno mahis.[17] The Swedish
botanist Carl Linnaeus used the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays.[18] The
name maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name
because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of
meanings that vary by context and geographic region.[19] Most countries primarily use the term
maize, and the name corn is used mainly in the United States and a handful of other English-
speaking countries.[20][21] In countries that primarily use the term maize, the word corn may
denote any cereal crop, varying geographically with the local staple,[22] such as wheat in England
and oats in Scotland or Ireland.[19] The usage of corn for maize started as a shortening of "Indian
corn" in 18th-century North America.[23]

The historian of food Betty Fussell writes in an article on the history of the word corn in North
America that "[t]o say the word corn is to plunge into the tragi-farcical mistranslations of
language and history".[8] Similar to the British usage, the Spanish referred to maize as panizo, a
generic term for cereal grains, as did Italians with the term polenta. The British later referred to
maize as Turkey wheat, Turkey corn, or Indian corn; Fussell comments that "they meant not a
place but a condition, a savage rather than a civilized grain".[8]

International groups such as the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International consider
maize the preferred common name.[24] The word maize is used by the UN's Food and Agriculture
Organization,[25] and in the names of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center of
Mexico, the Indian Institute of Maize Research,[26] the Maize Association of Australia,[27] the
National Maize Association of Nigeria,[28] the National Maize Association of Ghana,[29] the Maize
Trust of South Africa,[30] and the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association.[31]

Structure and physiology

Maize is a tall annual grass with a single stem, ranging in height from 1.2 to 4 m (4 to 13 ft).[32]
The long narrow leaves arise from the nodes or joints, alternately on opposite sides on the
stalk.[32] Maize is monoecious, with separate male and female flowers on the same plant.[32] At
the top of the stem is the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; their anthers release pollen,
which is dispersed by wind.[32] Like other pollen, it is an allergen, but most of it falls within a few
meters of the tassel and the risk is largely restricted to farm workers.[33] The female
inflorescence, some way down the stem from the tassel, is first seen as a silk, a bundle of soft
tubular hairs, one for the carpel in each female flower, which
develops into a kernel (often called a seed. Botanically, as in all
grasses, it is a fruit, fused with the seed coat to form a
caryopsis[34]) when it is pollinated.[32] A whole female inflorescence
develops into an ear or corncob, enveloped by multiple leafy layers
or husks.[32] The ear leaf is the leaf most closely associated with a
particular developing ear. This leaf and those above it contribute
over three quarters of the carbohydrate (starch) that fills the
grain.[35]

The grains are usually yellow or white in modern varieties; other

varieties have orange, red, brown, blue, purple, or black grains. They
are arranged in 8 to 32 rows around the cob; there can be up to
1200 grains on a large cob.[6] Yellow maizes derive their color from
carotenoids; red maizes are colored by anthocyanins and
phlobaphenes; and orange and green varieties may contain
combinations of these pigments.[36]

Maize has short-day photoperiodism, meaning that it requires nights of a certain length to flower.
Flowering further requires enough warm days above 10 °C (50 °F). The control of flowering is set
genetically; the physiological mechanism involves the phytochrome system. Tropical cultivars
can be problematic if grown in higher latitudes, as the longer days can make the plants grow tall
instead of setting seed before winter comes. On the other hand, growing tall rapidly could be
convenient for producing biofuel.[32]

Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-

1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (DIMBOA), which provides a measure of protection against a wide range of
pests.[37] Because of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-
deficient soils, and prone to being uprooted by severe winds.[38]
 Many small male Female inflorescence, Stalks, ears and silk Full-grown maize
flowers make up the with young silk plants
male inflorescence or
tassel.

Mature maize ear on

a stalk

Male flowers Mature silk

Genomics and genetics

Exotic varieties are collected to add genetic diversity when

selectively breeding new domestic strains.

Maize is diploid with 20 chromosomes. 83% of allelic variation within the genome derives from
its teosinte ancestors, primarily due to the freedom of Zea species to outcross.[39] Barbara
McClintock used maize to validate her transposon theory of "jumping genes", for which she won
the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[40] Maize remains an important model organism
for genetics and developmental biology.[41] The MADS-box motif is involved in the development
of maize flowers.[42]

The Maize Genetics and Genomics Database is funded by the US Department of Agriculture to
support maize research.[43] The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center maintains a
large collection of maize accessions tested and cataloged for insect resistance.[44] In 2005, the
US National Science Foundation, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy
formed a consortium to sequence the maize genome. The resulting DNA sequence data was
deposited immediately into GenBank, a public repository for genome-sequence data.[45]
Sequencing of the maize genome was completed in 2008.[46] In 2009, the consortium published
results of its sequencing effort.[47] The genome, 85% of which is composed of transposons,
contains 32,540 genes. Much of it has been duplicated and reshuffled by helitrons, a group of
transposable elements within maize's DNA.[48]

Breeding

Conventional breeding

Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding
began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed
to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of the earliest and most successful, developing Reid's
Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection (a row of plants is
grown from seeds of one parent), and the choosing of plants after pollination (which means that
only the female parents are known). Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection (C. G.
Hopkins c. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and the highly
successful double cross hybrids using four inbred lines (D. F. Jones c. 1918, 1922). University-
supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern
hybrids.[49]

Since the 1940s, the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred
strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and
disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic engineering have succeeded in
increasing output and reducing the need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer. There is
conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the
past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle,
lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic
traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant.[50]

Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many ears; these are the source of the
"baby corn" used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine.[51][52] A fast-flowering variety named mini-maize
was developed to aid scientific research, as multiple generations can be obtained in a single
year.[53] One strain called olotón has evolved a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing
microbes, which provides the plant with 29%–82% of its nitrogen.[54] The International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates a conventional breeding program to provide
optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s.[55] Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by
its Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project.[56]

Tropical landraces remain an important and underused source of resistance alleles – both those
for disease and for herbivores. Such alleles can then be introgressed into productive varieties.[57]
Rare alleles for this purpose were discovered by Dao and Sood, both in 2014.[57] In 2018, Zerka
Rashid of CIMMYT used its association mapping panel, developed for tropical drought tolerance
traits. to find new genomic regions providing sorghum downy mildew resistance, and to further
characterize known differentially methylated regions.[58]

Genetic engineering

Genetically modified maize was one of the 26 genetically engineered food crops grown
commercially in 2016.[59][60] The vast majority of this is Bt maize. Genetically modified maize has
been grown since 1997 in the United States and Canada;[61] by 2016, 92% of the US maize crop
was genetically modified.[59] As of 2011, herbicide-tolerant maize and insect-resistant maize
varieties were each grown in over 20 countries.[62] In September 2000, up to $50 million worth of
food products were recalled due to the presence of Starlink genetically modified corn, which had
been approved only for animal consumption.[63]

Origin

External phylogeny

The maize genus Zea is relatively closely related to sorghum, both being in the PACMAD clade of
Old World grasses, and much more distantly to rice and wheat, which are in the other major
group of grasses, the BOP clade. It is closely related to Tripsacum, gamagrass.[64]
⁠
various grasses e.g. fescue, ryegrass
⁠
⁠ ⁠
Hordeum (barley)
⁠BOP clade ⁠ ⁠ ⁠
⁠ ⁠ ⁠
Triticum (wheat)
⁠
⁠
Oryza (rice)
⁠
(Part of Poaceae) ⁠
Pennisetum (fountaingrasses)
⁠ ⁠
⁠
Sorghum (sorghum)
⁠
⁠ ACMAD clade
P ⁠
Tripsacum (gamagrass)
⁠ ⁠ ⁠
⁠ ⁠ ⁠
Zea mays (maize)
⁠ ea ⁠
⁠ Z
⁠ ⁠
other Zea species (teosintes)
⁠

Maize and teosinte

Teosinte (left), maize-

teosinte hybrid (middle),
maize (right)

Maize is the domesticated variant of the four species of teosintes, which are its crop wild
relatives.[65] The teosinte origin theory was proposed by the Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich
Vavilov in 1931, and the American Nobel Prize-winner George Beadle in 1932.[66]: 10 The two
plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and
teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by
differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 (gt1, A0A317YEZ1 ([Link]
uniprot/A0A317YEZ1)) and teosinte branched-1 (tb1, Q93WI2 ([Link]
93WI2)).[65] In the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the
result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and a species of Tripsacum, a
related genus; this has been refuted by modern genetic testing.[66]

In 2004, John Doebley identified Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis, native to the
Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, as the crop wild relative genetically most
similar to modern maize.[67][68] The middle part of the short Balsas River valley is the likely
location of early domestication. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an
8,700 year old layer of deposits in a cave not far from Iguala, Guerrero.[69] Doebley and
colleagues showed in 2002 that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9,000 years ago,
and then spread throughout the Americas.[3]

Maize pollen dated to 7,300 years ago from San Andres, Tabasco has been found on the
Caribbean coast.[69] A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and
northern South America 7,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at
Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley, are roughly 6,250 years old; the oldest ears from caves
near Tehuacan, Puebla, are 5,450 years old.[7]

Spreading to the north

Around 4,500 years ago, maize began to spread to the north. In the United States, maize was first
cultivated at several sites in New Mexico and Arizona about 4,100 years ago.[7] During the first
millennium AD, maize cultivation spread more widely in the areas north. In particular, the large-
scale adoption of maize agriculture and consumption in eastern North America took place about
A.D. 900. Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for the new crop.[70] The rise
in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in what is now the southeastern United States
corresponded with a decline of freshwater mussels, which are very sensitive to environmental
changes.[71]
Agronomy

Growing

Because it is cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root
system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As a plant that uses C4
carbon fixation, maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than plants that use C3 carbon
fixation such as alfalfa and soybeans. Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk
emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was
traditionally predicted if the maize was "knee-high by the Fourth of July", although modern
hybrids generally exceed this growth rate. Maize used for silage is harvested while the plant is
green and the fruit immature. Sweet corn is harvested in the "milk stage", after pollination but
before starch has formed, between late summer and early to mid-autumn. Field maize is left in
the field until very late in the autumn to thoroughly dry the grain, and may, in fact, sometimes not
be harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of sufficient soil moisture is
shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes maize crop failure and
consequent famine. Although it is grown mainly in wet, hot climates, it can thrive in cold, hot, dry
or wet conditions, meaning that it is an extremely versatile crop.[72]

Maize was planted by the Native Americans in small hills of soil, in the polyculture system called
the Three Sisters.[73] Maize provided support for beans; the beans provided nitrogen derived from
nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes; and
squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over
the soil.[74]

Seedlings three weeks Young stalks Mature plants

after sowing showing ears

Harvesting

Sweet corn, harvested earlier than maize grown for grain, grows to maturity in a period of from
60 to 100 days according to variety. An extended sweet corn harvest, picked at the milk stage,
can be arranged either by planting a selection of varieties that ripen earlier and later, or by
planting different areas at fortnightly intervals.[75] Maize harvested as a grain crop can be kept in
the field a relatively long time, even months, after the crop is ready to harvest; it can be harvested
and stored in the husk leaves if kept dry.[76]

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the four decades from 1855 to 1894 the
amount of labor required to produce one bushel of maize declined from four hours and thirty four
minutes to only forty-one minutes.[77] Before 1940, most maize in North America was harvested
by hand. This involved a large number of workers and associated social events (husking or
shucking bees). From the 1850s onward, some machinery became available to partially
mechanize the processes, such as one- and two-row mechanical pickers (picking the ear, leaving
the stover) and corn binders, which are reaper-binders designed specifically for maize. The latter
produce sheaves that can be shocked. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested,
which requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole
ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs, sufficient for some livestock feeding uses. Today
corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms
harvest the grain from the field with a combine harvester and store it in bins. The combine with a
corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the
stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground,
where it usually is left to become organic matter for the soil. The ear of maize is too large to pass
between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to
enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels.[78]

Harvesting maize, Iowa Harvesting maize, Finland Hand-picking

maize, Myanmar

Dehusking maize by hand,

Malawi
Grain storage

Drying is vital to prevent or at least reduce damage by mould fungi, which contaminate the grain
with mycotoxins. Aspergillus and Fusarium spp. are the most common mycotoxin sources, and
accordingly important in agriculture.[61] If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high,
grain dryers are used to reduce the moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain.
This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases (propane or natural
gas) and electricity to power the blowers.[79]

Production

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each
year than any other grain.[80] In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes, led by the
United States with 31.0% of the total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total.[81]

Production of maize (2019)[83] Maize (pink strip) is the second most

widely produced primary crop, after
sugarcane, and the first among grain
crops.[84]
Pests Top maize producers

in 2020

Numbers in million tonnes

1. United 360.3 (31%)

States

2. China 260.7 (22.43%)

3. Brazil 104 (8.95%)

4. 58.4 (5.02%)
Argentina

5. Ukraine 30.3 (2.61%)

Disease cycle of Northern corn leaf blight 6. India 30.2 (2.6%)

Many pests can affect maize growth and development, 7. Mexico 27.4 (2.36%)
[85][86]
including invertebrates, weeds, and pathogens.
8. 22.5 (1.94%)

Maize is susceptible to a large number of fungal, Indonesia

bacterial, and viral plant diseases. Those of economic 9. South 15.3 (1.32%)
importance include diseases of the leaf, smuts such as Africa
[87]
corn smut, ear rots and stalk rots. Northern corn leaf
10. Russia 13.9 (1.2%)
blight damages maize throughout its range, whereas
banded leaf and sheath blight is a problem in Asia.[88][89]
Some fungal diseases of maize produce potentially World total 1162.4
[61]
dangerous mycotoxins such as aflatoxin. In the
United States, major diseases include tar spot, bacterial Source: FAOSTAT[82][81]

leaf streak, gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, and
Goss's wilt; in 2022, the most damaging disease was tar spot, which caused losses of 116.8
million bushels.[90]

Maize sustains a billion dollars' worth of losses annually in the US from each of two major insect
pests, namely the European corn borer or ECB (Ostrinia nubilalis) and corn rootworms (Diabrotica
spp) western corn rootworm, northern corn rootworm, and southern corn rootworm.[91][92][93]
Another serious pest is the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda).[94] The maize weevil
(Sitophilus zeamais) is a serious pest of stored grain.[95] The Northern armyworm, Oriental
armyworm or Rice ear-cutting caterpillar (Mythimna separata) is a major pest of maize in Asia.[96]

Nematodes too are pests of maize. It is likely that every maize plant harbors some nematode
parasites, and populations of Pratylenchus lesion nematodes in the roots can be "enormous". The
effects on the plants include stunting, sometimes of whole fields, sometimes in patches,
especially when there is also water stress and poor control of weeds.[97]

Many plants, both monocots (grasses) such as Echinochloa crus-galli (barnyard grass) and dicots
(forbs) such as Chenopodium and Amaranthus may compete with maize and reduce crop yields.
Control may involve mechanical weed removal, flame weeding, or herbicides.[98]

Northern corn leaf blight Corncob damage by Caterpillar of European corn borer in
European corn borer maize

Uses

Culinary

Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the
world.[6] Maize is used to produce the food ingredient cornstarch.[99] Maize starch can be
hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener.[100]
Maize may be fermented and distilled to produce Bourbon whiskey.[101] Corn oil is extracted from
the germ of the grain.[102]

In prehistoric times, Mesoamerican women used a metate quern to grind maize into cornmeal.
After ceramic vessels were invented the Olmec people began to cook maize together with beans,
improving the nutritional value of the staple meal. Although maize naturally contains niacin, an
important nutrient, it is not bioavailable without the process of nixtamalization. The Maya used
nixtamal meal to make porridges and tamales.[103] Maize is a staple of Mexican cuisine. Masa
(nixtamal) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American
food. It is the main ingredient of corn tortilla, tamales, atole and the dishes based on these.[104]
The corn smut fungus, known as huitlacoche, which grows on maize, is a Mexican delicacy.[105]

Coarse maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the
angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (or hominy grits in the
Southern US) or the food called mieliepap in South Africa and sadza, nshima, ugali and other
names in other parts of Africa. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century,
maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop.[106]

Sweet corn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is eaten in the unripe state
as corn on the cob.[107]

Semi-peeled corn on the cob Mexican tamales

Poster of maize-based foods,

US Food Administration,
1918

One way of serving Italian

polenta

Nutritional value

Raw, yellow, sweet maize kernels are composed of 76% water, 19% carbohydrates, 3% protein,
and 1% fat (table). In a 100-gram serving, maize kernels provide 86 calories and are a good
source (10–19% of the Daily Value) of the B vitamins, thiamin, niacin (if freed), pantothenic acid
(B5) and folate.[110] Maize has suboptimal amounts of the essential amino acids tryptophan and
lysine, which accounts for its lower status as a protein source.[111] The proteins of beans and
legumes complement those of maize.[111]

Animal feed

Maize is a major source of animal feed. As a grain crop, the dried kernels are used as feed. They
are often kept on the cob for storage in a corn crib, or they may be shelled off for storage in a
grain bin. When the grain is used for feed, the rest of the plant (the corn stover) can be used later
as fodder, bedding (litter), or soil conditioner.
Sweetcorn, yellow, raw
When the whole maize plant (grain plus stalks
(seeds only)
and leaves) is used for fodder, it is usually Note: assuming freed niacin

chopped and made into silage, as this is more Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
digestible and more palatable to ruminants
Energy 360 kJ (86 kcal)
than the dried form.[112] Traditionally, maize
was gathered into shocks after harvesting,
Carbohydrates 18.7 g
where it dried further. It could then be stored
Starch 5.7 g
for months until fed to livestock. Silage can be
made in silos or in silage wrappers. In the Sugars 6.26 g

tropics, maize is harvested year-round and fed Dietary fiber 2g

as green forage to the animals.[113] Baled
cornstalks offer an alternative to hay for Fat 1.35 g

animal feed, alongside direct grazing of maize

Protein 3.27 g
grown for this purpose.[114]
Tryptophan 0.023 g

Threonine 0.129 g

Isoleucine 0.129 g

Leucine 0.348 g

Lysine 0.137 g

Methionine 0.067 g

Cattle wait alongside a fence as Cystine 0.026 g

a truck distributes a grain feed
Phenylalanine 0.150 g
composed of corn by-products
Tyrosine 0.123 g
into troughs.
Valine 0.185 g

Arginine 0.131 g

Histidine 0.089 g

Alanine 0.295 g

Aspartic acid 0.244 g

Glutamic acid 0.636 g

Glycine 0.127 g
Baled cornstalks
Proline 0.292 g

Chemicals Serine 0.153 g

Starch from maize can be made into plastics, Vitamins and minerals [show]
fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical
products.[115] Corn steep liquor, a plentiful
watery byproduct of maize wet milling Other constituents Quantity

process, is used in the biochemical industry Water 75.96 g

and research as a culture medium to grow
microorganisms.[116] Link to USDA Database entry ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]#/food-details/16999
8/nutrients)
One ear of medium size (6-3/4" to 7-1/2"
Biofuel long)
maize has 90 grams of seeds.
Feed maize is being used for heating; †
Percentages estimated using US recommendations
specialized corn stoves (similar to wood for adults,[108] except for potassium, which is

stoves) use either feed maize or wood pellets estimated based on expert recommendation from the
National Academies.[109]
to generate heat. Maize cobs can be used as a
biomass fuel source. Home-heating furnaces
which use maize kernels as a fuel have a large hopper that feeds the kernels into the fire.[117]
Maize is used as a feedstock for the production of ethanol fuel.[118] The price of food is indirectly
affected by the use of maize for biofuel production: use of maize for biofuel production
increases the demand, and therefore the price of maize.[119] A pioneering biomass gasification
power plant in Strem, Burgenland, Austria, started operating in 2005. It would be possible to
create diesel from the biogas by the Fischer Tropsch method.[120]

Farm-based maize silage

digester near Neumünster,
Germany, 2007, using whole
maize plants, not just the
grain. The green tarpaulin top
cover is held up by the biogas
stored in the digester.

In human culture

In Mesoamerica, maize is seen as a vital force, deified as a maize god, usually female.[121] In the
United States, maize ears are carved into column capitals in the United States Capitol
building.[122] The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, uses cobs and ears of colored maize to
implement a mural design that is recycled annually.[123] The concrete Field of Corn sculpture in
Dublin, Ohio depicts hundreds of ears of corn in a grassy field.[124] A maize stalk with two ripe
ears is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1 lipa coin, minted since 1993.[125]

Maize kernels have sometimes denoted cowardice, as maize is fed to chickens, which symbolise
cowards. In the months before the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat anti-Allende protestors threw maize
at military barracks in a call to depose him.[126][127]

Maize sculpture, Stucco head of the Jaina Island Aztecs storing

Moche culture, 300 Maya maize god ceramic statuette maize,
AD, Larco Museum, from Campeche, of the young Maya Florentine Codex,
Lima, Peru Mexico, 550–850 maize god 1540/1585
AD emerging from an
ear of corn, 600–
900 AD

Water tower in
Rochester,
Minnesota being
painted as an ear
of maize, 2008

See also

Detasseling

Post-harvest losses (grains)

 Push–pull technology, pest control strategy for maize and sorghum

Zein

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Further reading

Byerlee, Derek. "The globalization of hybrid maize, 1921–70." Journal of Global History 15.1
(2020): 101–122.

Clampitt, Cynthia. Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland (2015)

Bonavia, Duccio (May 13, 2013). Maize: Origin, Domestication, and Its Role in the Development
of Culture ([Link] . Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-1-107-02303-1.

External links

Maize Genetics and Genomics Database ([Link]

Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center ([Link]

"Zea mays" ([Link] .

Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States
Department of Agriculture.

Portals: Food Agriculture Plants Mesoamerica Mexico

Guatemala Energy