**2. Nutritional composition**

Corn, due to its high nutritional quality, is a permanent global crop used to fulfill the nutritional requirements of humans and cattle [3]. Corn is rich in nutritional compounds such as carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals including calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium salts [3]. Corn seeds contain sugars (16.39–21.20 g/100 g dw), protein (11.46–12.70 g/100 g dw), and crude oil (5.73–6.21 g/100 g dw) [18]. Corn silk contains moisture (9.65–10.4%), protein (9.42–17.6%), fat (0.29–4.74%), ash (1.2–3.91%), dietary fiber (7.34%), and carbohydrates (65.5–74.3%), and good composition of vitamins and minerals as sodium, potassium (28, 1360 mg/100 g dw, respectively), calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, and copper (0.1869, 0.1939, 0.005, 0.0165, 0.0109, and 0.0073 mg/g fw, respectively) [3, 19, 20]. The processed corn silk contains significant amounts of crude fiber (13%), crude protein (13%), and carbohydrates (69%). Being low in crude fat content, corn silk can be preferably used in the preparation of fat-free food formulations [21].
