Alternative Uses of Maize

Agriculture Update | August & November, 2010 | Vol. 5 | Issue 3 & 4| 526-528 | A REVIEW Alternative uses of maize A.V. TAK AND V.B. TAK See end of the article for Food Purpose: common dish in the United States, United authors’ affiliations Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) Kingdon and some parts of South America, Correspondence to : constitutes a staple food in many regions of but virtually unheard in some European A.V. TAK the world. Maize meal is made into a thick countries. The cooked unripe kernels may also Department of porridge in many cultures. from the polenta of be shaved off the raw unripe kernels may also Agricultural Extension ltaly, the angu of Brazil, the mamaliga of be grated off the cobs and processed into a Economics, Romania, to mush in the U.S. or the food called Marathwada variety of cooked dishes, such as maize paine Agricultural University, called sadza, nshima, ugali, and mealie pap in putee, tamales, pamongas, cutau,cakes, ice PARBHANI (M.S.) Africa. Maize meal is also used as a creams, etc. Sweetcorn, a genetic variety that INDIA replacement for wheat flour, to make cornbread is high in sugars and low in starch, is ususally and other baked products. Masa (cornmeal consumed in the unripe state. treated with lime water) is the main ingredient Corn the cob, as it is usually called in the for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of United States, was hawked on the streets of Mexican food. early 19th-century New York City by poor, Popcorn is kernels of certain varieties of barefoot “Hot Corn Girls” who were thus the maize which explode when heated, forming precursors hot-dog carts, churro wagons,and fluffy pieces that are eaten as a snack. Roasted fruit stands seen on the streets of big cities dried maize cobs with semi-hardened kernels, today. coated with a seasoning mixture of fried Maize is a major source of starch. chopped spring onions with salt added to the Cornstarch (maize flour) is a major ingredient oil, is a popular snack food in Vietnam. in home cooking and in many industrialized Chicha and” chicha morada” (purple food products. Maize is also a major source of chicha) are drinks made usually from particular cooking oil (corn oil) and of maize gluten. types of maize. The first one is fermented and Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and alcoholic,the second is a soft drink commonly enzymatically treated to produce syrups, drunk in Peru. particularly high fructose corn syrup, a Corn flakes are a common breakfast sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to cereal in North America and the United produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from Kingdom, and found in many other countries maize is traditionally the source of bourbon all over the world. whiskey. Maize is sometimes used as the Key words : Maize can also be prepared as hominy, in starch source for beer. Maize, Cornmeal, which the kernels are soaked with lye in a ln the United States and Canada maize is Popcorn, Chicha, process called nixtamalization; or grits, which also widely grown to feed for livestock, as Corn flakes are coarsely ground hominy. These are forage, silage (made by fermentation of commonly earten in the South eastern United chopped green cornstalks), or grain.Maize meal States, foods handed down from native is also a significant ingraedient of some Americans, who called the dish sagamite. commercial animal food prpducts,such as dog The Brazilian dessert canjica is made by food. boiling maize kernels in sweetened milk Maize is also used as fish bait, called Maize can also be harvested and “dough balls.” lt is particuarly popular in Europe consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels for coarse fishing. are fully grown but still soft. Unripe maize must be cooked to become palatable; this may be Chemicals and medicines : done by simply boiling and eating the kernels Accepted : Starch from maize can also be made into July, 2010 right off the cob. Such corn on the cob is a plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE A.V. TAK AND V.B. TAK 527 chemical products. january 2008, of maize among the commercial agreements Stigmas from female maize flowers, known popularly of NAFTA has increased this debate, considering the bad as cotton silk, are sold as herbal supplements. labour conditions of workers in the fields, and mainly the The corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery by product fact that NAFTA opened the doors to the import of maize of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the form the United States, where the farmers who grow it biochemical industry and research as a culture medium receicve multi-million dollar subsidies and other to grow many kinds of microorganisms. government supports. According to OXFAM UK, after NAFTA went into effect, the price of maize in Mexico Biofuel : fell 70% between 1994 and 2001. The number of farm Maize is tentively cheap and home-heating furnaces jobs dropped as well: from 8.1 million in 1993 to 6.8 million have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel in 2002. Many of those who found themselves without They feature a larhe hoppet that feeds the uniformly sized work were small-scale maize growers.However, maize kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the introduction in the northern latitudes of the U.S. of tropical fite. maize for biofuels, and not for human or animal Maize is increasingly used as a feedstock the consumption, may potentially alleviate this. ptoduction of ethanol fuel. Ethanol is mixed with gasoline As a result of the U.S. federal government in order to decrease the amount of pollutants emitted when announcing its production target of 35 billion gallons of used to fuel motor vehicles. High fule prices in mid 2007 biofuels by 2017, ethanol production will grow to 7 billion led demand for ethanol; which in turn to higher prices gallons by 2010, up from 4.5 billion in 2006, boosting paid to farmers for maize. This led to the 2007 harvest ethanol’s share of maize demand in the U.S. from 22.6 being one of the profitable maize crops in history for per cent to 36.1 percent. farmers. Because of the relationship between fuel and maize, prices paid for the crop now tend to track price of Ornamental and other uses: oil. Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for It has been errneously assered that recent food price ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated increases were the result of higher prices for maize. and colored leaf forms as well as those with colorful ears Transpotarion costs, a large portion of the prine of food, are used. Additionally, size-superlative varieties, having and higher fuel prices for transportaion effected food reached 31 ft (9.4m) tall, or with ears 2 inches (60.96cm) prices. Higher costs for food were mostly due to higher long, have been popular for at least a century.(32)(33) transportation costs. The price of the maize derived Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make content has little effect. inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the Farm-based maize silage digester located near United States in 1869. Neumunster in Germany, 2007 Green inflatable biogas holder is shown on top of the digester Children playing in a corn kernel box Maize is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for An unsual use for maize is to create a corn maze biogas. Here the maine is harvested, shredded then placed (or maize maze) as a tourist attraction. The idea of a silage clamps from which it is fed into the biogas plants. maize maze was introduced by Adrian Fisher, one of the A biornass gasification power plant in Strem near most prolific designers of modern mazes, with The Gussin, Burgenland, Austria began in 2005. Research is American Maze Company who created a maze in being done to make diesel out of the biohgas by the Fischer Pennsyylvania in 1993. Traditional mazes are most Tropsch method. commonly grown using hedges, but these take several Increasingly ethaol is being used at low years to mature. The rapid growth of a field of maize concentrations (10% or less) as an additive gasoline allows a maze to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor’s (gasohol) for fuel to increase the octane ratinh, lower line of sight by the start of the summer. In Canada and pollutants, and reduce petroleum use (what is nowadays the U.S., these are popular in many farming communities. also known as “biofuels” and has been generating an Maize kernels can be used in place of sand in a intense debate regarding the human beings’ necessity of sandbox-like enclosure for children’s play. new sources of energy, on the one hand, and the need to maintain, in regions such as Latin America, the food habits Folder: and culture which has been the essence of civilizations Maize makes a greater quantity of epigeous mass such as the one originated in Mesoamerica; the entry, than other cereal plants, so can be used for fodder. Agric. Update | Aug. & Nov., 2010 | Vol. 5 | Issue 3 & 4 | HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE 528 ALTERNATIVE USES OF MAIZE Digestiblity and palatability are higher when ensiled and Colour Handbook of Diseases of Small Grain Cereal Crop fermented, rather than dried. Timothy D. Murray, David W.Parry, nigel D. Cattlin Wiley/ Manson Publishing Authors’ affiliations: Evolution of Wild Emmer and Wheat Improvement E. Nevo. V.B. TAK, Department of Agricultural Economics, A.B.

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