Sweet Corn

A Sweet Corn is a corn that has high sugar content.

• Context:
  • It can (typically) rely on a recessive gene mutation in the sugary (su1) allele to prevent the full conversion of sugar to starch.
  • It can (typically) be harvested in the milk stage for immediate consumption, preserving the high sugar content before it converts to starch.
  • It can (typically) be traced to its historical cultivation by North and Central American indigenous peoples.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • An Iroquois variety of sweet corn introduced to European settlers in 1779.
  • a Golden Bantam sweet corn in the 1900s, which established sweet corn as a staple in American home gardens.
  • A Supersweet corn, developed in the 1950s by John Laughnan at the University of Illinois.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Field Corn, which is harvested after the kernels have matured and dried, primarily used for livestock feed, ethanol production, and industrial food products.
  • Dent Corn, which is another type of field corn used for similar purposes but with a different kernel structure that forms a "dent" as it dries.
• See: Sucrose, Zea Mays, Corn, Sugar, Recessive, Mutation, Starch, Endosperm, Vegetable, Field Corn, Canning, Dent Corn.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_corn Retrieved:2024-9-26.
  • Sweet corn (Zea mays convar. saccharata var. rugosa), also called sweetcorn, sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of corn grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel. Sweet corn is picked when still immature (the milk stage) and prepared and eaten as a vegetable, rather than field corn, which is harvested when the kernels are dry and mature (dent stage). Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar to starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen, before the kernels become tough and starchy. It is one of the six major types of corn, the others being dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, and flour corn. According to the USDA, 100 grams of raw yellow sweet corn contains 3.43 g glucose, 1.94 g fructose, and 0.89 g sucrose.

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