Maize, commonly known as corn, is a cereal grain cultivated as staple food in Mesoamerica.

>From there, it spreads to the American continents. In the late 15th and the early 16th centuries when the Europeans came to North and South America, they brought back home corn and spread it throughout the world during the rest of their conquest.

Maize or corn as it is commonly called is a plant that belongs to the grass family. It grows large ears with kernels attached to a cob. These kernels are eaten as grains, in processed or raw forms, by both humans and animals.

It’s a good source of carbohydrates, protein, vitamin B, and minerals.

Nowadays, when there is clamor to wean humans from oil based energy, corn gains even more recognized for its potential in ethanol production.

See also

• Corn varieties
• Tasty Corn Recipes
• Ethanol Production from Corn

The six general varieties are dent, flint, popcorn, flour, sweet, and pod corns.

• Dent corns are so called because of the dent on the tip of its kernel formed when the soft starch it contains while still young shrinks. This happens as it matures.
• Flint corns do not have this characteristic as they do not contain soft starch while still young.
• A flint corn variant, popcorn, pops open when it is heated due to the rapid expansion of the moisture in its kernel.
• Flour corns, on the other hand, contain less densely packed starch that is easily ground into meal while sweet corns have distinct sweetness in them because of the sugar they contain.
• Such sugar was not converted into starch while maturing.
• The last type of corn, pod corn, is rather cultivated for its decorative purposes than for its consumptive value. Some pod corns have multi-color patterns and some have diminutive husks.

Corn bread muffins are simple to prepare and well loved by kids. Such muffin is a good way to insert that much needed fiber in children’s diet.

These starches are then fermented into ethanol. Ethanol derived from corn is a clean source of energy that is use to power hybrid cars, although this technology is generally still in its infancy.