Abstract
In this study, a simplified laboratory-scale wet milling method was designed and utilized to fractionate maize (corn) kernels into by-products namely germ, gluten and fiber. Corn gluten with the highest yield (14.4%) was followed by fiber (12.1%) and germ (4%). Nutraceuticals were chemically extracted, characterized and compared between the by-products and the raw corn kernel flour. Carotenoids, tocopherols and tocotrienols were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), while the phytosterols were characterized by gas chromatography (GC). It was found that γ-tocopherol was higher in corn germ (58.89 mg/100 g) than in fiber, gluten and the raw corn kernel flour (1.96, 2.01 and 14.02 mg/100 g, respectively). Corn fiber showed a higher β-sitosterol content (294.36 mg/100 g) than germ, gluten and the raw corn kernel flour (31.11, 134.25 and 94.13 mg/100 g, respectively). In addition, corn gluten had a higher content of lutein (5074 µg/100 g) and zeaxanthin (6559 µg/100 g) than the germ, fiber and the raw corn kernel flour. Nutraceuticals and functional food ingredients from corn wet milling by-products offer health-promoting value and may alleviate the risk of cardiovascular diseases, oxidative stress and cancer.
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The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.
Change history
09 June 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42976-023-00404-3
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Funding
The authors thank ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), New Delhi, India, for funding through SRF (Senior Research Fellowship) under Grant No. (3/1/2/91/2018-(Nut)). The authors would like to thank the CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, and AcSIR, Ghaziabad, for the facilities.
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“Material preparation, data collection, experimentation and analysis were performed by Thalli Satyanarayana Deepak. Conception and designing experiments, revising and validating the manuscript was done by Padmanabhan Appukuttan Jayadeep. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Thalli Satyanarayana Deepak, while Thalli Satyanarayana Deepak and Padmanabhan Appukuttan Jayadeep commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
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Communicated by Ankica Kondic-Spika.
The original version of this article has been revised: Author affiliation no. 2 has been corrected.
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Deepak, T.S., Jayadeep, P.A. Nutraceutical potential of maize (Zea mays L.) laboratory-scale wet milling by-products in terms of β-sitosterol in fiber, γ-tocopherol in germ, and lutein and zeaxanthin in gluten. CEREAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 51, 687–699 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42976-022-00342-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42976-022-00342-6