192 Kansas Academy of Science. 



the hulls and germs are also absent. There are numerous breakfast foods 

 consisting wholly or partly of some corn product. Corn flour is a fine 

 starchy product obtained from corn and which may to a certain extent 

 be mixed with wheat flour without unduly impairing the gluten-producing 

 power of the wheat flour upon which its use in making yeast bread 

 depends. 



The proteins of corn do not, as do those of wheat, possess the power 

 to form an adhesive glutinous mass when mixed with water, and hence 

 cannot be leavened by yeast, or by baking powders to any great extent. 

 The food use of corn and its products is thus restricted in some degree, 

 but this very lack gives them a greater usefulness in certain other direc- 

 tions, such as in griddle cakes, puddings and mush. 



Twenty million bushels of corn are used annually in the United States 

 in the manufacture of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, and in this con- 

 nection large quantities of by-products are obtained which are used in 

 feeding cattle, milk cows and swine. Three million bushels of corn, rye 

 and barley were used by a single Peoria firm in one year in the manu- 

 facture of denatured alcohol. 



The manufacture of starch from corn is one of our great industries. 

 This is used in part as such for food, and for stiffening goods, and largely 

 for the manufacture of a number of substances produced by the glucose 

 factories. Starch has a highly complex molecular structure, and in the 

 presence of water, and under the stimulus of enzymes, acids or other 

 agents it may undergo changes in which water enters into combination, 

 and an extensive series of products is formed. The chemistry of these 

 cannot be entered into at this time in any detail. Suffice to say that the 

 articles of commerce are for the most part mixtures containing several 

 of these alteration products of starch, the relative quantities of which 

 differ in the different commercial substances. These alteration products 

 are soluble starch, dextrines, maltose, and dextrose or grape sugar. The 

 nature of the commercial product obtained depends on the degree of com- 

 pleteness to which the chemical change is carried, grape sugar being the 

 final product, the dextrines and maltose marking stages in the trans- 

 formation. After the process has gotten well under way all of the sub- 

 stances named are present, but as the change proceeds the dextrines 

 diminish in quantity while grape sugar increases. By continuing the 

 action long enough the total product finally consists practically of grape 

 sugar only. 



Another name for grape sugar is glucose, but in commerce the name 

 glucose is applied to intermediate products that consist largely of dex- 

 trines, and are produced in the form of sirups from which grape sugar 

 does not crystallize out. Commercially the final product is called grape 

 sugar, and this is obtained as a solid substance. If this grape sugar be 

 heated gently it is changed to caramel, which has a brown color and a 

 characteristic flavor. 



The personal experiences of nearly all of us are such that a mere 

 naming of starch and these alteration products is enough to give a strong 

 impression of the importance of corn as a source of accessory as well as 

 staple food substances. Glucose sirup or corn sirup is extensively con- 

 sumed, usually mixed with other sirups which give it characteristic 



