UTILISATION
More than 500 products are obtained from maize, which is used in three main ways:
Human food, especially in the tropics and in Africa. Maize grain lacks gliadin,
one of the key proteins of gluten, and so cannot be made into leavened bread. Its
protein is poor quality and is deficient in niacin. Green maize (“corn on the
cob”) is less nutritious than mature maize. So-called “baby corn” is harvested
before fertilisation and contains about 90% water, and very little fat, protein or
carbohydrate.
Animal food (“stover”); maize supplies two thirds of the total trade in food
grains. Compared with other cereal grains, maize has less fibre, less protein
(and of lower value) and fewer minerals, but has a higher net energy content
and is more easily digestible. The whole plant is often used as a forage crop in
Northern Europe, where cool climates limit the efficient production of crops of
maize for grain.
Raw material for industry: both the grain and cobs are used, in adhesives,
explosives, textile sizing, dyes, plastics, chemicals, paper and wallboard, paints,
maize starch, for brewing and distilling, etc.
LIMITATIONS
management. The plant is less drought tolerant than most millet and sorghum
It is deficient in niacin (also known as nicotinic acid), and thus diets in which
maize predominates, and where there is little protein, often result in the niacin
not used to produce leavened bread.
Pellagra is characterised by skin lesions and gastrointestinal and neurological
disturbances, causing the so-called “3Ds” of pellagra: dermatitis, diarrhoea and
dementia.
The disease is seldom a deficiency of niacin alone - recovery usually follows a
treatment of multivitamins, or a well-balanced diet for mild or suspected cases of
pellagra.
Maize grain is low in both niacin and tryptophan, an amino acid that is converted
by the body into niacin. Certain foods such as milk and eggs protect the body from
pellagra even though they are low in niacin itself, because they have a high
proportion of tryptophan.
The native Americans in Mexico and Central America developed a way treating
maize with lime when making tortillas which makes the niacin available.
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118 TONY WINCH
Maize will only produce good yields in relatively fertile soils and with careful
varieties.
deficiency disease known as pellagra.
Both the plant and grain are susceptible to insect and disease attack.
The plant is sensitive to frost.
The protein is of poor quality, with a very low content of lysine and tryptophan.
The nutritional value of maize is inferior to most of the other cereals.
The elastic protein (gluten) of maize is comparatively poor quality, and maize is
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