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Botanical name: Zea mays
Category: Medicinal herbs
Presentation: Powdered
Traditional use: Antioxidant, Lowering cholesterol, Lower blood pressure
Purple corn (Spanish: maíz morado) or purple maize, a variety of zea mays, is a corn grown in the Andes region of South America. Is common in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and it is used in chicha morada (a drink made by boiling purple corn with pineapple, cinnamon, clove, and sugar) and mazamorra, a type of pudding. One of the most popular drinks is the “Api” or also known as “Inca’s dessert”. The kernels of Purple Corn have long been used by the people of the Andes to color foods and beverages, a practice just beginning to become popularized in the industrialized world. Besides its use as food and dye, purple corn is thought to have many health benefits.
