My Dorland’s includes maize in its list of plants that can cause cyanide poisoning. Peaches and almonds and so forth I already knew about, but what parts of corn plants can cause cyanide poisoning?
There are many cyanogenic plants. The cyanide is bound up in complex sugars called glycosides, and released by enzyme action in the stomach or intestines. The author of this article on cyanide toxicity seems a little confused about what constitutes a glycoside (they contain carbohydrates, cyanide is not a glycoside), but his description of some of the causes of cyanogenic glycoside accumulation is dead on: