Showing Food Corn - FooDB

General Information

Name

Corn

Scientific Name

Zea mays

Description

Corn, Zea mays, is a cereal native to Central America, specifically Mexico and Guatemala. It is widely consumed in the United States, Mexico, China, and Brazil (PMID: 16988344). Corn is a versatile food used in various culinary applications, including boiling, roasting, grinding into flour, and making sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup. The kernels have a sweet taste, a mild odor, and a range of colors including yellow, white, and blue. Corn is rich in carbohydrates, fiber, and antioxidants, providing several health benefits, including supporting healthy digestion and reducing the risk of chronic diseases (PMID: 36721262). The most notable chemical in corn is starch. Beyond its food value, corn is used in the production of biodegradable plastics, fabric, and ethanol. A peculiar aspect of corn preparation is the process of nixtamalization, an ancient Mesoamerican technique that involves soaking corn in limewater to remove the hulls and increase its nutritional value.

Primary ID

FOOD00205

Picture

Classification

Group

Cereals and cereal products

Sub-Group

Cereals

Taxonomy

Superkingdom

Eukaryota

Kingdom

Viridiplantae

Phylum

Streptophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Poales

Family

Poaceae

Genus

Zea

Species

mays

Variety

Not Available

External Links

ITIS ID

Wikipedia ID

Composition

Compounds

Compound	Structure	Content Range	Average	Reference
Compound				Reference

Macronutrients

Macronutrient	Content Range	Average	Reference
Nutrient			Reference

Micronutrients

Micronutrient	Content Range	Average	Reference
Nutrient			Reference

References

Content Reference

— Duke, James. 'Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. United States Department of Agriculture.' Agricultural Research Service, Accessed April 27 (2004).
— Saxholt, E., et al. 'Danish food composition databank, revision 7.' Department of Nutrition, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (2008).
— U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2008. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page.
— Rothwell JA, Pérez-Jiménez J, Neveu V, Medina-Ramon A, M'Hiri N, Garcia Lobato P, Manach C, Knox K, Eisner R, Wishart D, Scalbert A. (2013) Phenol-Explorer 3.0: a major update of the Phenol-Explorer database to incorporate data on the effects of food processing on polyphenol content. Database, 10.1093/database/bat070.
— Shinbo, Y., et al. 'KNApSAcK: a comprehensive species-metabolite relationship database.' Plant Metabolomics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2006. 165-181.