238 



BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF MOLDS 



TABLE 2 {Continued) 



Miscellaneous Metabolic Pkoducts of Fungi 



[From Iwanoff and Zwetkoff (1936), Birkinshaw (1937), Lockwood and Moyer 

 (1938), Raistrick (1938, 1940), and Others] 



Product 



Miscellaneous substances 



(conl.) 

 Sulochrin ^^ (methyl ester of 

 2:6: 4'-trihydroxy-4- 



methyl-6'-methoxybenzo- 



phenone-2'-carboxylic 



acid) 

 M.P. 262°C. 



Terrein ^ (4-propenyl-2-hy- 

 droxy-3 : 5-oxidcyclopen- 

 tane-1-one) 



M.P. 127°C. 



Formula 



O 



COOCH3 



OH 



HO 



CH3 



OCH3 HO 



O 



II 

 C 



/ \ 

 HC CHOH 



O 



H3C • HC=HC — — CH 



Produced By 



Oospora sulfurea- 

 ochracea 



Aspergillus terreus 



iiNisikawa (1940). 



^ Clutterbuck, Raistrick, and Reuter (1937). 



Reprinted by permission from Bacterial Chemistry and Physiology, by J. R. Porter, 

 published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 



MOLD ENZYME PREPARATIONS 



From the foregoing sections it can be seen that molds must possess 

 a wide variety of enzymes to carry out the various changes. Some 

 enzymes catalyze certain useful reactions and can be utilized by man. 

 Hence, some molds have been grown for their enzyme content. 



An extremely useful enzyme which can be prepared from certain 

 strains of the Aspergillus flaviis-Oryzae group of organism is amylase 

 (diastase). This enzyme hydrolyzes starch to dextrins and sugars. 

 A number of methods have been used to prepare amylase industrially. 

 In the oldest method, rice or wheat bran is moistened to about 60 

 per cent w^ter content. It is then steamed for 1 to 2 hours to solu- 

 bilize the starch and destroy some of the undesirable contaminating 

 organisms present. The solid medium is allowed to cool to about 

 30° C. and is then inoculated with spores of a selected strain of 

 Aspergillus. The inoculated and well-mixed bran is then placed in 

 shallow layers on trays, provided with false bottom wire nets, the 

 trays being stacked on racks. At first, it may be "necessary to apply 

 external heat to keep the temperature at 30° C. However, as the 

 mold develops, heat is generated and the molding bran must be 



