Corn steep liquor is a
by-product
A by-product or byproduct is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction; it is not the primary product or service being produced.
A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be cons ...
of
corn wet-milling. A
viscous
Viscosity is a measure of a fluid's rate-dependent resistance to a change in shape or to movement of its neighboring portions relative to one another. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of ''thickness''; for example, syrup h ...
concentrate of corn solubles which contains amino acids, vitamins and minerals,
[Corn steep liquor , Sigma-Aldrich]
/ref> it is an important constituent of some growth media. It was used in the culturing of ''Penicillium
''Penicillium'' () is a genus of Ascomycota, ascomycetous fungus, fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production.
Some members of th ...
'' during research into penicillin
Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...
by American microbiologist Andrew J. Moyer. It is an excellent source of organic nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...
.[Liggett, W and Koffler, H. (December 1948). "Corn Steep Liquor in Microbiology". ''Bacteriol Rev''. 12(4): 300. . .]
Corn steep liquor has CAS number 66071-94-1 and EC Number 266-113-4.[
]
References
Maize products
{{microbiology-stub