ALCOHOL FROM BANANAS 133 



Briefly, the use of the flakes may be considered both 

 advantageous and easy in brewing." 



Banana meal * from peeled unripe bananas is mashed 

 with malt extract and then fermented with yeast, 100 

 kilogrammes of meal yielding 47' 8 litres of alcohol. When 

 mashing is carried out without malt extract, the diastase 

 naturally present in the meal being used, the yield of 

 alcohol is considerably lower. 



Denatured Alcohol from Bananas. Any one interested in 

 the manufacture of alcohol from bananas should read some 

 such small and cheap treatise as " Distillation of Alcohol 

 and Denaturing," by F. B. Wright, published by Spon, 

 London and New York. It goes to show that an immense 

 industry has arisen in Germany in connexion with the 

 production of alcohol from potatoes, and it follows that 

 much might be done on somewhat similar lines with the 

 banana. According to Mr. Wright, the common form of 

 alcohol known as denatured spirit or methylated spirit 

 consists of alcohol to which one-tenth of its volume of 

 wood alcohol or other denaturizing agents has been added, 

 for the purpose of rendering the mixture undrinkable 

 through its offensive odour and taste. As it is sold duty 

 free, it is applied to a variety of uses to which, from its 

 greater cost, duty-paid spirit is commercially inapplicable. 

 Mr. Wright states that " it is Germany which has led the 

 way in the manufacture and use of denatured alcohol or 

 spiritus, as it is there known. Germany has no natural 

 gas or oil-wells, and gasolene and kerosene are not produced 

 there, hence the necessity of using some other form of 

 liquid fuel. This fuel in many ways better than any 

 petroleum product was found in alcohol." The agricul- 

 tural districts of Germany produce abundant crops of 

 potatoes and beets. " From the first, alcohol can be so 

 easily manufactured that the processes are within the 

 understanding and ability of any farmer " ; it is also 

 made from the crude molasses from beet -sugar factories. 

 " Under these circumstances and the great demand for 

 * Journ. Soc. Chem. Ind., xxxi. 453 (1912). 



