Huitlacoche

What it is

Huitlacoche, also spelled cuitlacoche, is the gall that the smut fungus Ustilago maydis forms on the ears of maize. The fungus is a pathogen of the crop: the review it appears in counts it among crop losses as well as among edible fungi.

The name is Nahuatl in origin. The Spanish form is huitlacoche; one source attributes the spelling to Spanish pronunciation of the Nahuatl word.

Food use

The gall is eaten in Mexico, where the 2023 review calls it an iconic edible fungus of Mexican culture and cuisine. The review's summary reports that it is eaten by 21 ethnic groups. Accounts describe it in quesadillas, tamales, soups and sauces.

Commercial production has also been studied. A research paper on controlled production of the galls for human consumption used wild-type isolates from Mexico, and it compared the productivity and flavour of different genotypes.

Nutrition and traditional medicine

Protein content of the gall is commonly reported at about 12 percent of dry matter. The review also reports fibre, fatty acids, minerals and vitamins, and antioxidant and antimicrobial activity in extracts. Nutrient values differ between studies and between galls, so no single table is given here.

The review's summary also records use in traditional medicine for 55 diseases. These are traditional uses, not clinical findings.

Safety and limits

The summary of the 2023 review records that huitlacoche is considered safe in Mexico but has not been recognised as safe by the European Food Safety Authority or the United States Food and Drug Administration. Its safety rests largely on long traditional use rather than on controlled clinical studies.

One study reports that mycotoxins have been detected in some canned galls. The sources reviewed do not give a shelf life or storage limit for fresh galls, and they do not support a verdict that any gathered gall is safe to eat. Anyone who buys or gathers galls should follow a tested local preparation and should not treat this page as a safety guide.

Open questions

The record does not settle when the gall was first deliberately encouraged on maize, and the claim that the Aztecs inoculated their crop was not confirmed in the sources reviewed. The protein figure and the safety status need checking against the primary literature before they are relied on.