Zein - a plant-based material of growing importance: New perspectives for innovative uses

Corn is an economically important crop with a broad presence worldwide, especially for providing animal feed and human consumption products, including those from industries that transform grains into starch, oil, flour, flakes, syrups, and ethanol. This review focuses on the corn derived protein zein, which is mainly obtained by the corn wet-milling process. As a plant-based material, zein emerges as a strong candidate for replacing synthetic plastics in the development of active and bioactive food packaging due to its chemical/physicochemical properties such as non-toxicity, biodegradability, processing versatility, film-forming ability, low water vapor permeability, grease/oil proof, and biocompatibility. Uses of zein point to pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, coating agents in general, adhesives, as well as other high added-value products. New insights are presented for zein in biomedical/pharmaceutical, textile, food packaging, and environmental applications. At the same time, discussions meet issues preconized by the United Nations in the 2030 Agenda, as well as the challenge for obtaining zein via an easier, cheaper, greener, and sustainable production chain.