Amylomaize was a term coined in the late 1940s by Robert P. Bear of Bear Hybrids Corn Company in

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city in Macon County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

to describe his discovery and commercial breeding of a cornstarch with high (>50%) amylose content, also called high amylose starch. The discovery of amylomaize occurred as a

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

in a normal inbred line; from that one mutation an entire new kind of

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

(corn) was developed. Amylomaize starch is principally used in making biodegradable plastics (or

bioplastic Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources. Timeline of plastic development, Historically, bioplastics made from natural materials like shellac or Celluloid, cellulose had been the first plastics. Since the end of ...

s). It is also used in edible and digestible coatings. The food consumed on

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

space flights from 1969 to 1972 were coated with an amylomaize film to prevent crumbs from floating around the space capsule. Several years earlier Robert P. Bear had discovered and reported that waxy corn (100% amylopectin starch) also occurred as a mutation. Once discovered and reported, waxy mutations were found in the order of once every 30,000 observations.

References

Maize varieties Starch Dietary supplements {{Agri-stub

See also

References