K.— BOTANY 207 



facture of ' jaggery ' or crude sugar. Toddy serves extensively as yeast 

 and no other is employed by Cingalese bakers. 



On the Indian continent, arrack is produced from palm-toddy, rice, 

 and the refuse of sugar refineries, but mainly from the flowers of Bassia, 

 which are rich in sugars. 



The various processes are carried out in so concentrated a liquid that 

 complete fermentation rarely takes place. The ' ferments ' are very 

 impure and a high proportion of deleterious by-products occur which 

 probably is responsible for many of the native ' drug ' symptoms. 



Chinese Rice, Migen or Men, is a ' starter ' similar to the Javanese 

 raggi. It appears in commerce as flattened cakes about the size of half- 

 a-crown. The recipe for its production includes over forty ingredients, 

 but no mention is made of the essential fungus included in its manu- 

 facture. This is Mucor Rouxii which occurs on rice grains. Chinese 

 Rice is prepared from rice rich in starch, which after being husked and 

 bleached is steamed until soft and then cooled on rice-straw mats, some- 

 times coated with paddy. Spores of the fungus gain entrance from the 

 rice-straw or husks, and they are distributed evenly during stirring. The 

 mats are placed in underground chambers for a couple of days, by which 

 time the fungus is well developed. The grains are next worked up by 

 hand, and exposed in the warmest parts of the cellar. The process is 

 repeated twice before the Chinese Rice is ready. It is used in the pre- 

 paration of rice spirit. 



Japanese Koji differs from Chinese Rice in the fungus concerned being 

 a species of Aspergillus. Various kojis are known by the name of the 

 fermentation process for which they are to be used. Shoyu koji is the 

 ' starter ' for the soy fermentation. Soy beans {Glycine spp.) are highly 

 nutritious, being rich in protein and oil though deficient in starch, and 

 are a staple food in Japan and China, having been cultivated for more than 

 five thousand years. The beans are soaked in cold running water and 

 then cooked until they are soft and cooled and drained as rapidly as possible. 

 The beans are commonly mixed with roasted and powdered wheat to 

 which the spores of Aspergillus Oryzce, A. flavus or some closely allied 

 species rich in proteolytic enzymes are added, and the mass is incubated 

 for two or three days until each bean is covered with the fungus. The 

 preparation of koji has passed from the old empiricism to a scientifically 

 controlled process. 



Shoyu koji is employed in the preparation of soy sauce, a dark brown, 

 salty liquid made by the fermentation of soy beans with, as a rule, some 

 additional starchy component. The sauce is widely used as seasoning 

 throughout Japan, China and Java, and is the basis of most European and 

 American sauces, giving the characteristic flavour of the Worcestershire 

 type. Though it is rare to see any reference in modern English literature 

 to what J. Ovington in 1696 called ' Souy the choicest of all Sawces,' 

 it was otherwise formerly when Byron wrote ' From travellers accustom'd 

 from a boy To eat their salmon, at the least, with soy,' and cruets always 

 had their soy bottle. Soy beans, having been cooked and mixed with 

 prepared wheat, are inoculated with the koji and emptied into a strong 

 brine, thus producing a mash. Constant daily attention is given to aera- 



