Cereal Chem 40:582 - 585.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Carotenoids of Corn and Sorghum. V. Distribution of Xanthophylls and Carotenes in Hand- Dissected and Dry-Milled Fractions of Yellow Dent Corn.

C. W. Blessin, J. D. Brecher, and R. J. Dimler. Copyright 1963 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Three lots of whole yellow corn were hand-dissected into bran, germ, floury endosperm, and horny endosperm. Two of the corns were varieties representative of those grown in the central Corn Belt; the third was a mixture used for commercial dry-milling. Components from each lot were analyzed for xanthophylls and carotenes. Fractions from commercial dry-milling of the mixture were analyzed for comparative purposes. Average carotenoid contents of hand-dissected fractions, in p.p.m., were: whole corn, 19.2; bran, 1.7; germ, 4.6; floury endosperm, 9.4 and horny endosperm, 27.6. Distribution of carotenoids in the kernel, based on relative weights of the four major fractions in percent were: bran, 1; germ, 3; floury endosperm, 16; and horny endosperm, 80. Carotenoid contents of commercial dry-milled fractions, in p.p.m., were: whole corn mixture, 20.8; bran, 12.2; germ, 9.5; floury endosperm, 17.1; and horny endosperm, 28.8. Xanthophylls comprised the greater portion of carotenoids in all fractions.