Alcoholic Fermentation: Second Edition, 1914Harden, Arthur
Science
Alcoholic Fermentation: Second Edition, 1914
Harden, Arthur
Fermentation
The construction of a balance-sheet between the sugar fermented and
the products formed is of special interest in the case of alcoholic
fermentation by yeast-juice, because, there being no cell growth as
in the case of living yeast, an opportunity appears to be afforded of
ascertaining whether the whole of the sugar is converted into alcohol
and carbon dioxide, or whether some fraction of the sugar passes into
any of the well-known subsidiary products of alcoholic fermentation by
yeast, such as glycerol, fusel oil, or succinic acid. Unfortunately
the question cannot be settled in this way. When the loss of sugar
during the fermentation is estimated directly, it is usually found
to be considerably greater than the sum of the alcohol and carbon
dioxide produced from it. This fact was first observed by Macfadyen,
Morris and Rowland [1900], and was then confirmed by Buchner [Buchner,
E. and H., and Hahn, 1903, p. 212], in one instance, the excess of
sugar lost over products being in this case about 15 per cent. of the
total sugar which had disappeared. The matter was then more thoroughly
investigated by Harden and Young [1904]. [p031]
The conditions under which the experiment must be carried out are not
very favourable to the attainment of extreme accuracy. Yeast-juice
contains glycogen and a diastatic enzyme which converts this into
dextrins and finally into sugar. This process goes on throughout
fermentation, tending to increase the sugar present and to make the
apparent loss of sugar less than the sum of the products. In spite
of this it was found that a certain amount of sugar invariably
disappeared without being accounted for as alcohol or carbon dioxide,
and this whether the fermentation lasted sixty or a hundred and
eight hours, and independently of the dilution of the juice. This
disappearing sugar amounted in some cases to 44 per cent. of the
total loss of sugar, and on the average of twenty-five experiments
was 38 per cent. Further information was sought by converting all the
sugar-yielding constituents of the juice into sugar by hydrolysis
before and after the fermentation. This process revealed the fact that
when the glucose equivalent of the juice before and after fermentation
was determined after hydrolysis with three times normal acid for
three hours (and a correction made for the loss of reducing power
experienced by glucose itself when submitted to this treatment),
the difference was almost exactly equal to the alcohol and carbon
dioxide produced. In other words, accompanying fermentation, a change
proceeds by which sugar is converted into a less reducing substance,
reconvertible into sugar by hydrolysis with acids. Similar results
were subsequently obtained by Buchner and Meisenheimer [1906], who
employed 1·5 normal acid and observed a small nett loss of sugar.
Still more recently Lebedeff [1909, 1910, see also 1913, 2] has
carried out similar estimations with the same result. It is doubtful
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