Lewis Knudson i6i 



Mtintzi" found that fermentation occurred through the action of Peni- 

 dllium glaucum. Fernbach" grew Aspergillus niger in Raulin's solution 

 with the sugar replaced by tannic acid, and then extracted from the organ- 

 ism the enzyme tarinase. Pottevin," in a similar manner and at the same 

 time, extracted the enzyme tannase from the same fungus. He noted also 

 that the enz5Tne was developed when Aspergillus niger was grown on Raulin's 

 solution with the sugar replaced by gallic acid. He stated that the tannase 

 acted on tannate of gelatin and also hydrolyzed methyl salicylate and ethyl 

 salicylate. 



Manea" showed that synthetically prepared digallic acid was not split up 

 by Aspergillus niger and Penicillium glaucum into gallic acid, and therefore 

 concluded that the hydrolyzable tannin of the gall nut could not be a digallic 

 acid. The latter in high concentrations was toxic to the organism. Fur- 

 ther, Manea estimated quantitatively the digallic and tannic acid used by 

 each organism. In a study of the fermentation process he employed pure 

 cultures, adding a previously sterilized Raulfn's solution rendered strongly 

 -acid. The quicker the fermentation, the richer was the yield of gallic acid 

 obtained. 



Kunz-Krause" found an octyl gallotannoid, C54H60O33, which through 

 the action of a mould was transformed to gallic acid. 



III. METHODS. 



Culture solution. Throughout all the work the culture solutions 

 used were a slight modification of Richards''* solution or of Cza- 

 pek's solution. 1' These solutions are designated respectively A 

 and B and are as follows: 



1° Miintz: Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 1877, p. 1773. 



''A. Fernbach: Sur la tannase, Compt. rend, de I' Acad, des Sci., cxxxi, 

 pp. 1214^16, 1901. 



'^ H. Pottevin: La tannase. Diatase dedoublant I'acide gallotannique, 

 Compt. rend, de I' Acad, des Sci., cxxxi, pp. 1215-17, 1901. 



"A. Manea: SurlesacidesgallotanniguesSt digalliques. These, Geneva, 

 1904. (Cited from Lafar: Handb. d. technische Mykologie, I, p. 663.) 



"Kunz-Krause: Fragmente zu einer Monographie d. Tannoide, Pharm. 

 Centralbl., Halle, 1898. (Cited from Lafar: Handb. d. technische Mykologie, 

 I, p. 662.) 



1* H. M. Richards : Die Beeinflussung des Wachstums einiger Pilze durch 

 chemische Reize, Jahrb.f. wiss. Bot., xxx, pp. 665-688, 1897. 



"Quoted from A. W. Dox: Intracellular Enzymes of Penicillium and 

 Aspergillus, U. S. Dept. of Agric, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bulletin 

 120, 70 pp., 1910. 



