Alcoholic Fermentation: Second Edition, 1914Harden, Arthur
Science
Alcoholic Fermentation: Second Edition, 1914
Harden, Arthur
Fermentation
The experiments by which these important changes were demonstrated
were of a very simple and convincing character [Ehrlich, 1907, 1]. Two
hundred grams of sugar and 3 to 10 grams of the nitrogenous substance
to be examined were dissolved in 2 to 2·5 litres of tap water in
a 3 to 4 litre flask, the liquid was sterilised by being boiled
for several hours, and after cooling 40 to 60 grams of fresh yeast
were added and the flask allowed to stand at room temperature until
the whole of the sugar had been decomposed by fermentation. In the
earlier experiments the amyl alcohols were isolated and identified by
conversion into the corresponding valerianic acids, but as a rule the
fusel oil as a whole was quantitatively estimated in the filtrate by
the Röse-Herzfeld method [Lunge, 1905, p. 571].
The following are typical results. (1) An experiment carried out as
above without any addition of leucine gave 97·32 grams of alcohol
containing 0·40 per cent. of fusel oil. (2) When 6 grams of synthetic,
optically inactive leucine were added, 97·26 grams of alcohol were
obtained, containing 2·11 per cent. of fusel oil, which was also
optically inactive; 2·5 grams of leucine were recovered, so that 87
per cent. of the theoretical yield of isoamyl alcohol was obtained
from the 3·5 grams of leucine decomposed. (3) In the presence of 2·5
grams of /d/-isoleucine (prepared from molasses residues), 200 grams
of sugar gave 93·99 grams of alcohol, containing 1·44 per cent. of
fusel oil, which was lævo-rotatory. This corresponds with 80 per cent.
of the theoretical yield of /d/-amyl alcohol from the isoleucine added.
This change, which Ehrlich has termed the alcoholic fermentation
of the amino-acids, although brought about by living yeast,
does not appear to occur at all when zymin [Ehrlich, 1906, 4;
Pringsheim, 1906] or yeast-juice [Buchner and Meisenheimer, 1906]
is substituted for the intact organism, nor is it effected even
by living yeast in the absence of a fermentable sugar [Ehrlich,
1907, 1]. The reaction appears indeed to be intimately connected
with the nitrogenous metabolism of the cell, and the whole of the
ammonia produced is at once assimilated and does not appear in the
fermented liquid. Other amino-acids [p088] undergo a corresponding
change, and the reaction appears to be a general one. Thus tyrosine,
OH·C{6}H{4}·CH{2}·CH(NH{2})·COOH, yields p-hydroxyphenylethyl alcohol,
or tyrosol [Ehrlich, 1911, 1; Ehrlich and Pistschimucka, 1912, 2],
OH·C{6}H{4}·CH{2}·CH{2}OH, a substance of intensely bitter taste,
which was first prepared in this way and is probably one of the
most important factors in determining the flavour of beers, etc.
Phenylalanine, C{6}H{5}·CH{2}·CH(NH{2})·COOH, in a similar way yields
phenylethyl alcohol, C{6}H{5}·CH{2}·CH{2}OH, one of the constituents
of oil of roses, whilst tryptophane,
C{6}H{4}
╱ ╲
╱ ╲
HN C·CH{2}·CH(NH{2})·COOH,
╲ ╱╱
╲ ╱╱
CH
yields tryptophol,
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