Corn silk
Maize stigmas, ‘the silk’; the styles and stigmas of Indian corn, Zea mays of Linnaeus; Ojibwe mandamin, corn; Stigmata maydis
- Known today as
- The silk of the maize ear: the threads, four to eight inches long, that grow one from each seed of the female flower and hang from the tip of the husk to catch the pollen, “without which the flowers would produce no seed.” Grieve describes them as fine, soft, yellowish threads, light green, purplish red, yellow, or light brown, “nearly odourless, faintly sweetish.” Once pollination is done, the silk dries up. King’s gives corn as “a native of the warm latitudes of America.”
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- maizenic acid
- Earliest authority here
- King’s American Dispensatory
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. No monograph of the European herbal committee covers corn silk, and none of the sources read for this entry sets out its safety.
Corn silk: what was it used for?
A urinary medicine. Grieve calls it “A mild stimulant, diuretic and demulcent, useful in acute and chronic cystitis and in the bladder irritation of uric acid and phosphatic gravel.” King’s found it useful “in many urinary troubles, associated with renal and cardiac disorders,” says the people of southern France used it at home for stones, gravel, and strangury, and judged the infusion of the fresh silk “the most active preparation”; it held that the diuretic action was largely due to a tonic action on the heart and blood vessels. The meal of the grain made a gruel for the sick and a poultice, and parched corn steeped in water was given to allay nausea and vomiting.
Corn silk: what does modern science say?
Little has been tested. A 2019 meta-analysis of four trials of corn silk decoction in people with angina found improved blood fats, but cautioned that “the lack of blinding in most studies may have led to overestimation of these effects,” and called for better studies. No study read for this entry tests the old claim, its use in cystitis and gravel.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- maizenic acidin the dried silk, by Grieve’s account, with fixed oil, resin, and sugar
- Mechanism
- Not established in the sources read for this entry.
- Standing
- There is no European monograph. A 2019 meta-analysis of four unblinded trials of the decoction in angina found improved blood fats.
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Corn, Indian.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Shi S, et al. (2019). Corn silk decoction for blood lipid in patients with angina pectoris: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Phytotherapy research : PTR. PMID 31423665. Abstract read · the text read
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Corn silk: what lore surrounds it?
Corn, Huron Smith wrote of the Ojibwe in 1932, “is a traditional heritage of the Ojibwe, although none knew a time when they did not have it.” Their origin story makes it “a pinch of flesh taken from the side of their culture hero, Winabojo, by himself and cast upon the ground, to grow and become corn for them.” They soaked the ripe grain in lye water and parboiled it, as hominy is made, and kept a ‘calico’ corn of their own, with grains of every colour on different cobs.
Corn silk: what did the older authorities say?
- King’s American Dispensatory
- Corn-silk “is diuretic and slightly anodyne,” and of value in the bladder disorders of children and where the urine is prone to decompose in the bladder. Its active virtue was attributed to maizenic acid, a crystallisable acid that Rademaker and Fischer had found in it in 1886, with a fixed oil and resin, but “No volatile oil could be found.”
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Corn Silk.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Corn, Indian.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). King’s American Dispensatory, vol. 2, “Zea.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. Read in part · the text read
- Smith, H. H. (1932). Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians, Corn (Zea mays). Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4. Project Gutenberg, 49527. Read in part · the text read
- Shi S, et al. (2019). Corn silk decoction for blood lipid in patients with angina pectoris: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Phytotherapy research : PTR. PMID 31423665. Abstract read · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 5 cited: 2 read in full, 2 read in part, 1 abstract read. 1 with the abstract on file.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Club members can point at a technical term in this entry, such as a constituent, an action, or a word of Jung’s, to read its definition from the source. The Club.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 16, 2026
- Chicago
“Corn silk.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/corn-silk.
- MLA
“Corn silk.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 16 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/corn-silk. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Corn silk. (2026, October 16). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/corn-silk
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See Also
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Felter, Smith
Couch grass · Coriander · Cowslip · Cubeb · Chokecherry · Eucalyptus · Cranberry · Cleavers · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Corn smut · Cornicello · Cordial flowers and fruits · Coral, red (Corallium rubrum, of the western Mediterranean, prepared as powder) · Copal
Historical description, not medical advice.
