Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-2-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Susan Pedigo

Second Advisor

Anne Cafer

Third Advisor

Randy Wadkins

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays ssp. Mays) is a revolutionary cereal grain that has raced to the world’s most popular staple crop, transforming societies and impacting history. This paper aims to build and portray the story maize has created through its journey to world domination. The important details that encompass this literature are maize’s cultural significance in my life’s story, the comparison of various starches broken down into amylose and amylopectin ratios, a summative historical account on maize’s spread throughout numerous parts of the old world, and the genetical analysis of maize that explains the key features that have led it to be the king of crops. By the end of this paper, it should help explain how maize has sprung to the current level of importance and why its current position has caused human societies to be fully dependent on this crop.

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.