CHAPTER XLV. 



THE USE OF MUCOREvE IN THE SPIRIT INDUSTRY. 



§ 240.— Mucor Rouxii and other species of 

 Amylomycetes. 



The faculty of producing diastatic enzymes and thereby exei-ting 

 a saccharifying action on both starch and dextrin, is possessed by 

 a considerable number of the Mucors. For the eailiest informa- 

 tion on this point we are indebted to U. Gayon and E. Dubouhg 

 (II.), who observed this faculty in Alucor circineUoides in 1886, 

 and also found that this organism was only capable of exerting 

 the influence specified when it developed in aggregations of 

 gemmte, but not when in the form of its normal mycelium. 

 Shortly afterwards they reported (III.) on further similar experi- 

 ments with Mucor alternans, and demonstrated that, under equal 

 conditions, this organism converts starch into maltose and not 

 into a hexose. The faculty is lacking in other species, e.g. 

 Mucor racemosus, which, according to FiTZ (IX.) also leaves 

 inulin unacted upon. There are other more powerful species 

 of Mucors, which, on account of their pi-actical impoitance for 

 the spirit industry, will now be fully described. 



For the preparation of rice spirit there is produced in China, 

 Cochin China, and the neighbouring countries, an article known 

 as Chinese Yeast, and put on the market in the form of flat 

 mealy balls, about the size of a half-crown. Its preparation, 

 composition, and application were first described in 1892 by 

 E. Calmette (I.), whose reports were extended and supple- 

 mented by C. EiJKMAN (II.) in 1894. According to these 

 authorities this so-called yeast is prepared by mixing equal 

 quantities of husked rice — steeped in cold water — or rice meal 

 and water, and pulverised aromatic drugs. The number of the 

 latter varies, in different recipes, up to 46, bvit always includes 

 garlic and galanga root. The resulting stiff paste is divided 

 into small cakes of the shape mentioned above. These are 

 laid on mats, previously coated with a thin but close layer of 

 moistened rice husks (paddy), or are covered over with a layer 

 of rice straw, and are kept in the dark for two to three 

 days, at an air temperature of about 30° C. The balls, which 

 by this time smell like yeast and have become coated with a fine 



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