404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



The original work of Burkholder and Evans in 1945 has stimulated 

 other investigations into the antibiotic phenomena of lichens. Thus 

 Stoll, Brack, and Renz (19b, 19c), working with 58 species from 

 different genera, report that 38 have been found to have antibacterial 

 action in vitro against Staphylococcus aureus. The active principles 

 have been proved to be lichen acids of which Z-usnic acid is reported 

 to be active not only against Staphylococcus but also Mycohacteria^ 

 Streptococcus^ Escherichia^ and Eherthella. F. Bustinza and A. Cab- 

 allero Lopez (3a) verify some of the earlier studies. Usnic acid again 

 appears as the more active substance against Staphylococcus and 

 Mycohacterium; the lichens used were Vsnea harhata^ Evernia fur- 

 furacea^ and E. pr-umustri. Br. Bustinza reports (in correspondence) 

 a paper to appear in Endeavour on "Antibacterial Substances from 

 Lichens." 



INDUSTRIAL USES OF LICHENS 



Brewing and distilling. — Use of lichens instead of hops for the 

 brewing of beer has been mentioned as having occurred in one or more 

 monasteries of Russia and Siberia which had a reputation of serving 

 bitter and highly intoxicating beer to the traveler. Tuckerman fur- 

 ther describes a byproduct of Loharia pulmonaria Hoff. which was 

 used as "a yellow, nearly insipid mucilage which may be eaten with 

 salt." 



Alcohol production from lichens is an old art, now replaced by 

 increased cultivation of potatoes, importation of sugar, and distilla- 

 tion of wood. Preparation of spirits from lichens was recommended 

 in 1870 as a means of saving grain otherwise diverted into alcohol 

 production. It was claimed that 20 pounds of lichen would yield 

 5 liters of 50-percent alcohol. Stenberg (20) published a report in 

 Stockholm in 1868 on the production of lichen brandy, and included 

 detailed plans for setting up a distillery with figures of possible pro- 

 duction levels. By 1893 the manufacture of brandy from alcohol 

 derived from lichens had become a large industry in Sweden, but by 

 1894, as a result of the local exhaustion of the plants, the industry 

 languished. Arendt (13) in 1872 reported that this originally Swed- 

 ish discovery was being applied in the Russian provinces of Arch- 

 angel, Pskow Novogorod, etc., and that various distillers exhibited 

 samples of lichen spirits at the Russian Industrial Exhibition in 

 Moscow, which were highly approved by the French and English 

 visitors. The industry was a lucrative one in the northern provinces 

 of Russia, yielding a net revenue of from 40 to 100 percent. Others 

 (6) have reported on the carbohydrate composition of lichens on the 

 Kola Peninsula, considered in connection with the problem of glucose 

 production in northern localities. This includes a tabulation of carbo- 

 hydrates present in eight lichen species, which shows them to be rich 

 in polyhexoses, but poor in cellulose and in pentosan. Two smaU 



