Consider a grain of corn and how many products can be obtained from it?

Think of a grain of corn. Corn is the only product that can remove such contradictory products as oil, sugar and flour... Is it produced only for food? Of course not. Miraculous grain corn, which is used in many fields from animal husbandry to industry, benefits humanity with its presence on earth.

Many grain products produced in the world are grown. The most grown agricultural product is wheat. Corn, which comes after wheat, is among the most frequently grown agricultural products in the world.

Corn is one of the few plants that has been cultivated for thousands of years. If we do a short research;

Its homeland is the continent of America and it is known that it has spread all over the world from here. In the archaeological excavations carried out in the US state of New Mexico, it has been determined that the corn kernels and corncob fragments found in the shelters and caves made of rocks are about 5000 years old. On the other hand, in the archaeological excavations carried out in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, in 1954, corn pollen, which was determined to be approximately 7000 years old, was found at a depth of 50-60 m in the soil. Since wild maize has not been found so far, no definite information about the origin and history of maize has been obtained, various theories have been produced on this subject, and all of them are still discussed today. However, the findings obtained from all archaeological excavations show that the corn plant has a history of 8,000 to 10,000 years.

In the years when the new world was discovered, corn was cultivated in many parts of the Americas. Horse tooth corn, hard corn, flour corn, sweet corn and gin corn types were also grown at that time. In particular, it was the most important plant used in the daily diet of the indigenous people living in the high regions of Mexico, Central America and South America. The Aztecs, who lived in ancient times in the region where Mexico is now, worshiped many corn gods and even offered humans as sacrifices in their rituals for greater yield. In the mythologies of the North and South American Indians, maize was seen as a gift from the gods. After the discovery of America, Spanish and English settlers who settled in that region learned how to cultivate corn and the usage areas of corn from the red-skinned local people.

When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain with the corn material he brought with him in 1493, corn was brought to Europe from its homeland in the New World for the first time. A few years after its entry into Spain, it found its place in large areas of Southeastern Europe and North Africa, especially in Portugal, France and Italy.

The Portuguese, a maritime nation, brought corn to the west coast of Africa at the beginning of the 16th century, and later to India and China. From there it spread to the whole of Asia. The corn plant has spread easily all over the world very quickly thanks to its high reproduction rate (from one to about a thousand) and its high yield potential. In many areas it has entered, it has replaced some existing plants. For example, after maize entered the African continent, it was replaced by one of the main crops, maize.

Since it can be used as a raw material in human nutrition, animal feed and in different branches of industry, it can easily find its place in the agricultural product pattern of many countries. About 90% of the corn produced in the world is used for human nutrition and animal feed. 65-70% of this is consumed as animal feed and 20% is consumed directly by humans. The remaining 8-10% is used in industry.

Many products are obtained from corn in industry. Hundreds of products, especially flour, oil, starch, sweeteners, can be counted in this context. Each part of the plant has a separate economic value.