Most commonly corn oil is used as salad oil, cooking oil and in margarine. Main reason for higher acceptance of corn oil over other vegetable oils like soybean oil, cottonseed oil etc. is due to its flavour and stability during storage and cooking, without addition of synthetic antioxidants. Corn oil contains on an average 14.3% tocopherols. These act as natural antioxi-dants by protecting double chemical bonds from oxidation. Tocopherols along with low levels of linoleic acid (18:3) are responsible for stability of corn oil flavour. Its bland flavour and high smoke point are mainly responsible for its popularity. Refined corn oil has very high smoking point at below 232°C as compared to other cooking oils (Table 3). Another reason for popularity of corn oil is its high content of unsaturated fatty acids, which reduces blood cholesterol levels.

A recent research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine,St Louis, USA has found that commercial corn oil can significantly reduce the amount of cholesterol absorbed from food. Phytosterol in corn oil is responsible for lower cholesterol absorption in the body from cholesterol containing food materials and it increases the percentage of high density lipids (HDL) in blood. Large number of cosmetic products like moisturizer, hair conditioner and stain remover have been released in the market which are principally based on corn oil. Crude corn oil may also be used as surfactant. There are reports in which corn oil has been used to increase the efficiencies of fungal bio-control agents. Besides these corn oil may also be used for various purposes like removal of rust from iron skillet, prevention of car doors from freezing, glue and stain remover, cleaning of home appliances etc. However, these uses are not very common and regular in nature.

Principally corn oil is used for food and cosmetic purposes. However, high-oil corn can also be used to enhance the feeding rations of animals. Corn with higher levels of oil and lesser proportion of carbohydrate are obviously higher in energy because the calorie content of oil is approximately 2.5% as great as that of carbohydrates. It has been observed that when oil level is higher (more than 6%) in feed rations the animals usually show a significant feed response over normal rations. It has been observed in feeding experiment that lambs on high-oil, high-protein rations gained 7% more weight, retained more nitrogen and required 6% less feed per pound of grain than the normal diet. High-oil corn diets fed to cows during last 30 days of gestation resulted in significantly greater body weight gains and higher fat levels in the colostrum than normal diets. Feeding trials on laying hens showed that diet of 17% protein with high-oil corn leads to better egg to feed ratio than normal ration, and egg production and yield increased with the high protein high-oil diets. High-oil diet is also superior in weight gain to feed ratio. Skin and plasma pigmentation was also improved in chicks fed with high-oil diets. Feeding trials with lactating dairy cattle showed 12% greater intake of dry matter for high-oil diet. On an average feeding trials suggest an advantage of 7% or more with high-oil corn rations in chicken, swine, dairy cattle and sheep over normal rations. In feed rations high-oil corn plays an important role because of the following reasons:

1. High-oil corn has nutritional advantage for feeding because of greater energy per unit of feed.

2. Protein concentration in high-oil hybrids is higher and protein quality is enhanced because of the larger scutellum size compared with normal corn. Increase in amino acid, lysine, increased from 0.244% in normal corn to 0.297% in high-oil corns.

3. High-oil corn hybrids usually have higher proportion of yellow pigments (carotenoids, xanthophylls etc.), which are beneficial in poultry rations.

4. The high-oil trait in produce is a consistent trait and can easily be monitored by using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), Near Infrared Reflectance (NIR) or NIR Transmission (NIRT) procedures. Thus oil concentration of corn lots during transport from producer to user can be monitored effectively.