Corn Extract: Uses in Penicillin, Glucose, and Corn Processing Products

Corn extract is just one small part of what can be obtained from corn. It might seem that everything the corn plant has to offer has already been taken. Flour and starch, molasses and glucose, oil and alcohol, and many other products are made from it. Yet corn is not called the miracle plant for nothing. Its resources and possibilities are even greater and broader. It should be noted, however, that the fuller and more comprehensive use of all the gifts of the "queen of the fields" is made possible by chemistry.

In chemical processing there is no room for production waste — everything is put to use. Corn extract is a clear illustration of this principle. During corn starch production, the steeping of the grain yields a thick, opaque liquid known as the extract, which contains a significant amount of valuable substances that have passed into solution.

What is corn steep extract used for?

The simplest way to process corn extract is to concentrate it and use it, together with other by-products, to manufacture valuable concentrated animal feed. Studies have established that during the steeping of corn grain, not only nitrogenous substances and carbohydrates pass into solution, but also certain other extractive substances that favour the growth of microorganisms, particularly mould fungi.

Because of this property, corn extract has acquired another very important purpose besides feed. Thanks to its high content of nitrogenous substances (up to 45%) and carbohydrates (up to 25%) in the dry residue, the extract serves as an excellent nutrient medium for cultivating mould in the production of penicillin.

For penicillin production the extract is boiled down in a vacuum apparatus to a dry-matter content of 50% and supplied to penicillin plants in that form. Corn extract is also used successfully in the manufacture of streptomycin, tetracycline and other antibiotics.

What medicines are made from corn?

Corn yields several pharmaceutical products beyond antibiotic culture media. Phosphorus-containing salts can be separated from the extract and processed into a valuable medicine called phytin. Penicillin and phytin are by no means the only medicinal products obtained from corn.

Glucose and ascorbic acid are also used as medicines when needed. In addition, tocopherol — vitamin E — is obtained from the germ of the corn grain.

Extract from corn silk

The threads that emerge from the top of a ripe ear, known as corn silk, have long been used in folk medicine as a remedy for gallbladder disorders. Today they have also gained official recognition.

The Central Scientific Research Pharmaceutical Institute developed two medicines from corn silk — a decoction and a corn silk extract made with 70% alcohol. Corn silk is also regarded as a haemostatic (blood-staunching) agent.