24 BULLETIN 1152, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Xatto. commonly called cheese, is a Japanese fermented food 
product prepared from soy beans. Although its manufacture varies, 
probably with the locality, it is a common practice to boil the soy 
beans until tender and then leave them in a warm place for 24 hours 
or until they have fermented through the activity of such bacteria 
as those of the Bacillus Tnesentericus or Bacillus vulgatus group. 
Pure starters of the natto bacillus, a member of this group, may be 
obtained from Hokkaido Imperial University in Sapporo, Japan.. 
Experiments show that, while the natto bacillus breaks down protein 
rapidly as compared with the shoyu mold, it does not break it down 
as rapidly as a strain of the related group picked up accidentally. 
The making of natto may therefore be classified as a controlled fer- 
mentation, as a weakly proteolytic strain of such groups of bacilli 
as mesentericus, vulgatus, and subtilis is generally selected. In the 
ripe natto the soy beans are rather viscid, but protein decomposition 
should not have gone far enough to develop an offensive odor. 
In the United States at least, certain enzymic products for in- 
dustrial uses known by such trade names as polyzime, oryzyme, etc.. 
owe their origin to the growth of these molds on cereals, bran, saw- 
dust, or similar substrata. The mold is grown in trays and kept in 
a koji room where specific conditions of temperature and moisture are 
maintained. The enzymic substance produced by suitable develop- 
ment of the mold is marketed either by selling the gross material, by 
leaching and selling it in liquid form, or by extracting the desired 
properties and selling the product as a concentrated powder. Such 
enzymic materials or solutions contain both diastatic and proteolytic 
enzymes. They are used by the textile trade and pectin industries. 
Manufacturers also recommend their use in clarifying fruit juices, 
in place of soap in laundries, and as a partial substitute for yeast 
leaven in bread baking. The diastatic enzymes of these products 
are of value in desizing textiles when in order to weave it has been 
necessary to oversize the warp threads. It is claimed also that the 
application of these enzymic solutions improves the texture of the 
fibers in both warp and fill of a cotton cloth and may be substituted 
for other means of mercerizing. The proteolytic enzymes are sup- 
posed to improve the texture of cotton and silk fabrics, but their 
usual value to the textile trade is in degumming silk fibers. The 
thread spun by the silk worm is composed of two fibers bound 
together by a gum. Treatment with a proteolytic enzyme removes 
the binding material and furnishes two silk fibers in the place of one. 
Recently the use of these mold enzymes in clarifying* pectin sub- 
stances for the jelly and jam trade has risen in importance above 
their other uses. The liquor pressed from apple pomace and utilized 
by makers of pectin contains proteins and starch which would cause 
cloudiness if introduced in jellies. The application of the mold 
enzyme reduces the proteins and starches to substances which cause 
no cloudiness and yet are not objectionable to the jelly maker. 
Aspergillus Wentii, a mold closely related to the" yellow-green 
Aspergilli, has been connected in the literature with fermentation 
processes. Experiments undertaken in the Bureau of Chemistry 
have shown that certain strains of A. Wentli have value for their 
power of inverting sugar and producing invert sugar on a scale 
suggestive of industrial application. 
