# 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 > **Caution.** No monograph of the European herbal committee covers corn silk, and none of the sources read for this entry sets out its safety. ## 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. ## 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 and toxicology - **maizenic acid**: in 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. ## 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. ## 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. - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Corn, Indian.” As published on botanical.com. - Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). *King’s American Dispensatory*, vol. 2, “Zea.” Internet Archive, kingsamericandis02kinguoft. - 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. - 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. - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Corn, Indian.” As published on botanical.com. - 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. --- *Corn silk.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/corn-silk Historical description, not medical advice.