Maize Day 2024 is on Thursday, November 28, 2024: What is lutein in maize?

Thursday, November 28, 2024 is Maize Day 2024. Maize Day (MaizeDay) on Twitter Maize Day. @MaizeDay. Maize Out for Michigan on 4.12.12

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Lutein is a common carotenoid xanthophyll found in nature. Carotenoids are among the most common pigments in nature and are natural lipid soluble antioxidants. Lutein is one of the two carotenoids (the other is zeaxanthin) that accumulate in the eye lens and macular region of the retina with concentrations in the macula greater than those found in plasma and other tissues. Lutein and zeaxanthin have identical chemical formulas and are isomers, but they are not stereoisomers. The main difference between them is in the location of a double bond in one of the end rings. This difference gives lutein three chiral centers whereas zeaxanthin has two.

Egg yolk and maize (corn) contained the highest mole percentage (% of total) of lutein and zeaxanthin (more than 85% of the total carotenoids). Maize was the vegetable with the highest quantity of lutein (60% of total) and orange pepper was the vegetable with the highest amount of zeaxanthin (37% of total). Substantial amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin (30-50%) were also present in kiwi fruit, grapes, spinach, orange juice, zucchini (or vegetable marrow), and different kinds of squash. The results show that there are fruits and vegetables of various colours with a relatively high content of lutein and zeaxanthin. Moreover, whereas alpha+beta-carotene and zeaxanthin are principally localized in the germ, lutein is equally distributed along the kernel.

Oxidative damage is a major risk factor in both conditions. There is increasing evidence that the antioxidant nutrients, particularly vitamins A, C and E, along with the carotenoid pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin, (found in fruits and vegetables), may help prevent or delay the onset of these forms of blindness in old age. More recently, studies have been undertaken on two pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin - that are found in high concentrations in the retina. Lutein and zeaxanthin are found in vegetables such as maize and spinach and in egg yolk. It is thought that high blood levels of lutein and zeaxanthin may protect the retina from damaging wavelengths of light.

One of the benefits of corn is it provides lutein which the body cannot produce. Lutein is an important nutrient for eye health. A lack of lutein may destroy macula tissue and develop cataracts or blindness as a person ages. The recommended dosage of lutein is 6 mg per day. A cup of corn flakes only provides 325mcg of lutein and half a cup of boiled corn kernels provides only about 600mcg.

Lutein absorbs blue light and therefore appears yellow at low concentrations and orange-red at high concentrations. Lutein was traditionally used in chicken feed to provide the yellow color of broiler chicken skin. Polled consumers viewed yellow chicken skin more favourable than white chicken skin. Such Lutein fortification also results in a darker yellow egg yolk. Today the coloring of the egg yolk has become the primary reason for feed fortification. Lutein is not used as a colorant in other foods due to its limited stability, especially in the presence of other dyes.

The lutein market is segmented into pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, food, pet foods, and animal and fish feed. The pharmaceutical market is estimated to be about US $190 million, nutraceutical and Food is estimated to be about US $110 million. Pet foods and other applications are estimated at US $175 million annually. Apart from the customary age-related macular degeneration applications, newer applications are emerging in cosmetics, skins and as an antioxidant. It is one of the fastest growing areas of the US $2 billion carotenoid market.

As a result of our discovery of lutein intolerance in as many as 85% of the autistic population, we have developed a causal theory based on an immune system choice during fetal development. At the time when the immune system is developing, the first undifferentiated immune cells (called pre-immunocytes) must select a non-self substance which has crossed the placental barrier in order for the immune system to proliferate. In the developing fetus there is no apparent function for a substance called lutein, a pigment which is used by the human at birth to protect the eyes from ultraviolet light.

What plants flower in the day time and what plants flower at night?

In plants

Many flowering plants use a photoreceptor protein, such as phytochrome or cryptochrome, to sense seasonal changes in night length, or photoperiod, which they take as signals to flower. In a further subdivision, obligate photoperiodic plants absolutely require a long or short enough night before flowering, whereas facultative photoperiodic plants are more likely to flower under the appropriate light conditions, but will eventually flower regardless of night length.

PHOTOPERIODIC FLOWERING PLANTS:

Photoperiodic flowering plants are classified as long-day plants or short-day plants, though the regulatory mechanism is actually governed by hours of darkness, not the length of the day.

Modern biologists believe[citation needed] that it is the coincidence of the active forms of phytochrome or cryptochrome, created by light during the daytime, with the rhythms of the circadian clock that allows plants to measure the length of the night. Other than flowering, photoperiodism in plants includes the growth of stems or roots during certain seasons, or the loss of leaves.

LONG-DAY PALNTS:

A long-day plant requires fewer than a certain number of hours of darkness in each 24-hour period to induce flowering. These plants typically flower in the northern hemisphere during late spring or early summer as days are getting longer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year is on or about 21 June (solstice). After that date, days grow shorter (i.e. nights grow longer) until 21 December (solstice). This situation is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere (i.e. longest day is 21 December and shortest day is 21 June). In some parts of the world, however, "winter" or "summer" might refer to rainy versus dry seasons, respectively, rather than the coolest or warmest time of year.

Some long-day obligate plants are:

Carnation (Dianthus)

Henbane (Hyoscyamus)

Oat (Avena)

Ryegrass (Lolium)

Clover (Trifolium)

Bellflower (Campanula carpatica)

Some long-day facultative plants are:

Pea (Pisum sativum)

Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum, spring wheat cultivars)

Turnip (Brassica rapa)

Arabidopsis thaliana (model organism)

SHORT DAY PLANTS:

Short-day plants flower when the night is longer than a critical length. They cannot flower under long days or if a pulse of artificial light is shone on the plant for several minutes during the middle of the night; they require a consolidated period of darkness before floral development can begin. Natural nighttime light, such as moonlight or lightning, is not of sufficient brightness or duration to interrupt flowering.

In general, short-day (i.e. long-night) plants flower as days grow shorter (and nights grow longer) after 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere, which is during summer or fall. The length of the dark period required to induce flowering differs among species and varieties of a species.

Photoperiod affects flowering when the shoot is induced to produce floral buds instead of leaves and lateral buds. Note that some species must pass through a "juvenile" period during which they cannot be induced to flower -- common cocklebur is an example of a plant species with a remarkably short period of juvenility and plants can be induced to flower when quite small.

Some short-day obligate plants are:

Chrysanthemum

Coffee

Poinsettia

Strawberry

Tobacco, var. Maryland Mammouth

Common duckweed, (Lemna minor)

Cocklebur (Xanthium)

Maize - tropical cultivars only

Some short-day facultative plants are:

Hemp (Cannabis)

Cotton (Gossypium)

Rice

Sugar cane

DAY NEUTRAL PLANTS:

Day-neutral plants, such as cucumbers, roses and tomatoes, do not initiate flowering based on photoperiodism at all; they flower regardless of the night length. They may initiate flowering after attaining a certain overall developmental stage or age, or in response to alternative environmental stimuli, such as vernalization (a period of low temperature), rather than in response to photoperiod........

thanks giving day? the history! ?

Almost every culture in the world has held celebrations of thanks for a plentiful harvest. The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago.

In 1620, a boat filled with more than one hundred people sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the New World. This religious group had begun to question the beliefs of the Church of England and they wanted to separate from it. The Pilgrims settled in what is now the state of Massachusetts. Their first winter in the New World was difficult. They had arrived too late to grow many crops, and withoutfresh food, half the colony died from disease. The following spring the Iroquois Indians taught them how to grow corn (maize), a new food for the colonists. They showed them other crops to grow in theunfamiliar soil and how to hunt and fish.

In the autumn of 1621, bountiful crops of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins were harvested. The colonists had much to be thankful for, so a feast was planned. They invited the local Indian chief and90 Indians. The Indians brought deer to roast with the turkeys and other wild game offered by the colonists. The colonists had learned how to cook cranberries and different kinds of corn and squashdishes from the Indians. To this first Thanksgiving, the Indians had even brought popcorn.

In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day ofthanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln askedall Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving*.

Hope this helps