Have you ever thought of the soft warm threads that protrude from the maize corn as important? These are scientifically known as the maize stigma and in English corn silk. They are usually removed off with the maize covers as one gets ready to cook, roast or eat the maize. However, very few people know their importance.
Mohammed Kintu, a naturopathic doctor at Eden Memory Research Centre in Kampala, says the juice you get from the corn silk can prevent all the kidney diseases and urinary bladder.
“The juice should not be drunk at night because of its great strength,” Kintu cautions. “It should be drunk only in the morning and evening.”
If they are dry, Kintu advises that you get their powder of one tea spoonful and put it in hot water. Thereafter, you can then proceed to take it as tea or as water after it has cooled down.
In his 2012 research “Corn silk (Stigma maydis) in healthcare,” Hasanudin Khairunnisa reveals that maize filament can be used in the reduction of high blood pressure, lower cholesterol and blood sugars.
If you are fatigued and depressed, Khairunnisa says the extract from the maize stigma is helpful in acting as an, anti-depressant, and anti-fatigue hence leaving you calm and relaxed.
Another 2016 study by Eun Young Lee from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Dankook University established that corn silk products reduced body weight and fat deposition thus helping one to have healthy weight.
Though corn silk has several healthy beneifts, David Wani, a nutrionist in Arua Hospital, it should be taken in moderated amount among pregnant and breast feeding mothers.
There are also some people who allergic to corn, causing rashes and itching skin. Wani says once you register such symptoms, a person should stop taking the corn silk.
So, if you have been throwing away the corn silk, think twice as you remember its medicinal benefits.
