[Jeremiah]

Jeremiah asked the Naked Scientists:

hi, you are really doing a great work right there. people in my area tend to say that if you consume too much roasted maize that it usually cause inflammation of the mucus membrane is it a fact or a fiction?

What do you think?

[RD]

Yes, if you are allergic to it ...

Maize flour-induced rhinitis
Persistent rhinitis due to eating maize (e.g. cornflour, corn-meal, corn-flakes etc.) is described in a 50-year-old patient. Fifteen years after the onset of the rhinitis, symptoms and typical reactions of food allergy to maize flour occurred: abdominal cramp-like pain and diarrhoea, and urticaria, following ingestion of polenta (cornmeal cooked in water and salt). Rhinitis resolved after stopping maize flour ingestion. The skin test to maize was strongly positive and so was the maize allergy blood test.

Case Report: Maize flour-induced rhinitis.
Franco Borghesan, Nestore Borghesan
Allerg Immunol (Paris) 2005 September;37(6):

http://www.allergyclinic.co.uk/hf+rh_casebook.htm