Chemical composition and phytosterols profile of degermed maize products derived from wet and dry milling

Maize is part of the diet of populations of all socio-economic classes in many countries around the world and is an excellent source of bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, phytosterols and lignans. Phytosterols have gained considerable interest because they possess properties that significantly reduce cholesterol levels in the blood by acting as antagonists. The purpose of this study was to characterise the fractions of maize flour obtained from Italian wet and dry milling processes from a chemical viewpoint (crude proteins, crude lipids and starch) and the contents of three main phytosterols. Whole parameters exhibited a broad variability in their content. The crude protein, crude lipids and starch contents ranged from 7.43 to 18.38% dry matter (dm), 0.61 to 8.53% dm and 23.77 to 80.41% dm, respectively, and the total phytosterol content ranged from 4.6 to 53.48 mg 100 g-1 dm. Significant differences were observed in the phytosterol compositions measured in degermed maize products obtained from wet and dry milling. The campesterol content ranged from 0.54 to 6.19 mg 100 g-1 dry weight (dw), respectively, for maize flour III and dry milling maize meal feed. The stigmasterol content ranged from 0.55 to 4.77 mg 100 g-1 dw for hominy grits II and broken degermed type I, respectively. In addition, the β-sitosterol content varied significantly from 2.51 to 44.37 mg 100 g-1 dw for hominy grits II and dry milling maize meal feed, respectively.