90 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



sugar, the completeness of this result depending upon the 

 suitability of the conditions provided and upon the pre- 

 sence of fungi of adequate diastasic power. A large num- 

 ber of different species of fungi were found in various 

 samples of Bakhar and the rapidity and completeness of 

 the saccharification of the rice starch also varied m accord- 

 ance with their relative diastasic powers, which were mea- 

 sured in pure cultures. It may be said that no one of the 

 numerous species found compared favourably in this res- 

 pect with Aspergillus Oryzm which is the organism used 

 for this purpose in Japan in the manufacture of " Sake " 

 or rice beer, by the use of the corresponding preparation to 

 Bakhar known in Japan as " Koji;" it is possible that the 

 introduction of Aspergillus Dry zee into India might con- 

 siderably improve the rice beer of this country. 



When by the action of the diastase-producing fungi a 

 large proportion of the starch of the rice grain has been 

 converted into sugar, mostly maltose, the next step is the 

 fermentation of the sugar by yeast with formation of alco- 

 hol. In the very full and interesting account of the use 

 of Bakhar by J. C. Ray published in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal (Vol. II, No. 4 of 1906) the author 

 ascribes this alcoholic fermentation to the mucors which 

 have already exerted a saccharifying influence en the 

 starch; I have never failed, however, to find yeasts present 

 in Bakhar capable themselves of producing alcohol without 

 involving the supposition put forward that mucors in their 

 vegetative condition secrete diastase but in the reproduc- 

 tive stage produce zymase, the alcohol producing fer- 

 ment. The yeasts found varied just as the mucors and 

 other fungi were found to do, and as it is a well known 

 principle in brewing and distilling that the variations in 

 physiological characters of the yeasts involved require 

 careful selection of the latter and exclusion of undesirable 

 varieties, it is very probable that the haphazard introduction 

 of unknown numbers of kinds of yeast into rice beer by the 

 agency of Bakhar would afford another point over which 

 control might usefully be exercised. 



