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Peoria lab research progressing on cornstarch with vegetable oil

Research into the use of cornstarch combined with vegetable oil could lead to more widespread uses for corn.

Todd Ward, director of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research lab in Peoria, Illinois says researchers are finding uses for it in foods, industrial cleaners, paints and even as a waterproof material for paper, wood and cotton products.

“They’ve also been using starch co-products as a biodegradable pesticide. They’ve shown that this can control a wide variety of fungi, bacteria, even termites. That’s an exciting application.”

Ward says the lab’s Dr. Gordon Selling received a $50-thousand-dollar grant through the NCGA’s Consider Corn Challenge to contribute to the lab’s ongoing research, “Innovative new uses of corn that could reach large markets and would end up utilizing large amounts of corn co-products that could help with prices for corn.”

The Peoria lab, a part of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, is also researching other crops for renewable uses and value-added products.