Uses & Values for Seed Corn

Food Source

• Corn offers a number of essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals as a food source. It is rich in magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, zinc, iron and selenium. It also has small amounts of potassium as well as vitamin B, thiamin, vitamin B6, niacin, riboflavin, folate and traces of vitamin A and vitamin E. It has high fiber content, antioxidants, and has a calorific value of 342 calories per 100g and phytochemicals. There are various health benefits that can be gained from corn including controlling diabetes, prevention of heart ailments, lowering hypertension, prevention of neural-tube defects at birth, prevention of digestive ailments like constipation and hemorrhoids, prevention of colorectal cancer and Alzheimer's. In addition, the minerals maintain normal growth, bone health and normal kidney functioning as well as maintaining normal heart rate and bone strength.

Industrial Use

• Aside from the vital nutrients of corn as a food source, it also has important contributions for industrial use. Corn oil is used in the manufacturing of soaps, paints and linoleum. It is also an essential ingredient in dressings and shortenings. It is used to sweetened toothpaste by a powder processed from corn called sorbitol, which is produced from the corn sugar dextrose and is used in toothpaste as a low-calorie, water-soluble, bulking agent. Other uses include corn oil-based ink used in newspaper printing, corn-derived citric acid used in the preparation of laundry detergents and flat wares made with cornstarch. It is also used in the production of tires, in which cornstarch is sprinkled on the molds before pouring the rubber to prevent the rubber from sticking to the molds. Cornstarch is used in the production of the porcelain part of spark plugs.

Alcohol Production

• Seed corn is high in sugar content. It is processed to produce alcohol for use with gasoline as gasohol. It is a good source of ethanol which is used in the distillery industry. Corn is also fermented for the production of corn liquor for beer manufacturing and whiskey production. Manufacturing beer involves a process of treating malt to convert and extract the barley starch to fermentable sugars using the amyloytic enzymes present in malt followed by yeast fermentation. The demand for lighter, less-filling beer has permitted the use of more refined carbohydrate sources like dry adjuncts, primarily dry milled corn grits, broken rice, refined cornstarch and more recently, dextrose and corn syrup. Corn is the major carbohydrate used in the production of whiskey. For example, a typical Canadian whiskey is made from a mixture of about 90 percent corn, 5 percent rye and 5 percent barley malt.