Alcohol and antibiotics:Fermentation

FERMENTATION:

Fermentation is incomplete oxidation of sugar especially glucose into alcohol and carbon dioxide.It is anaerobic process done in presence of micro organisms.Alcohol is the first product of biotechnology.
The various commercially important compounds produced during fermentation are:
1)PRIMARY METABOLITES:
Compounds essential for growth of micro organism.Eg:Protein,vitamin etc,
2)SECONDARY METABOLITES:
compounds which are not essential for growth of microorganisms.

ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION:
Fermentation is incomplete oxidation of sugar specially glucose into alcohol and carbon dioxide in presence of micro organism.It is an anaerobic process.In this process,the glucose is splitted up by glycolysis process into Pyruvic acid which is further degraded enzymatically into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
DETAIL REACTION:
1)Glucose---------2 moles of pyruvic acid
Glycolysis

2)Pyruvic acid--------Acetaldehyde+CO2
PYruvate decarboxylase

3)Acetaldehyde---------Ethanol
dehydrogenase NADH2
ORGANISM USED IN ALCOHOL FERMENTATION:
The organism used in alcohol fermentation is yeast(Saccharomyces cerevisae). COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL:
The commercial production of alcohol involve the following process:
1)PREPARATION OF SUBSTRATE:
The most common raw material used in manufacture is molasses.It is thick,dark syrup drained from raw sugar during refining process.Molasses mash is adjusted to the desired sugar concentration and temperature by addition of water.

2)ADDITION OF YEAST:
The molasses is kept in a bioreactor and yeast or starter is mixed with molasses.When mash and yeast are well mixed,they spatter and fall on bottom of tank.

3)FERMENTATION:
The fermentation process starts and rapidly becomes vigorous.Large quantity of CO2 is evolved.

4)DISTILLATION:
The fermented mash is distilled and passed through rectifying columns to recover alcohol.

INDUSTRIAL PREPARATION FROM BARLEY:
Industrial preparation of alcohol from starch substance Barley include the following process:
1)Malting 2)Mashing 3)Fermentative 4)Distillation

At first,wet barley grains are kept in water for 3 days and in 10 degree C.Then,it is kept in malt house for 10 days.Wet barley seed germinate in malt house for 10 days and germinate in malt kiln at 60 degree C.Now,it is completely roasted.This roasted seed is powdered in rollers.This powder is called grist.Now,it is transferred to Cu vessel.
Mashing start from mash ton.It is made of CU vessel and temperature is about 65 degree C in this ton.Grist is transferred into mash ton ;and is mixed with hot water and other sources.Diastase enzyme is formed.

2(C6H10O5)n + H2O --------C12H22O11
Diastase Maltase
Worts is produced inside mash ton.

This maltose is transferred to fermentor and yeast is used for fermentation.Yeast secrete two enzyme,maltase and zymase.

Maltose+water--------2 moles of glucose
Maltase
glucose ------------ alcohol+ carbon dioxide

Alcohol undergoes distillation process.It consists of 95% ethyl alcohol and treated additive.

PRINCIPLES OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY:
1)BATCH PROCESS:
In this process,medium containing the microbes is removed after each charge.The fermentation tank is cleaved and fresh batch is stored.

2)CONTINUOUS PROCESS:
In this process,medium containing the product is removed after fixed intervals and fresh medium is added into the bio reactors.

3)IMMOBILISED PROCESS:
In this process,the beads of living cells are placed in the medium in bioreactor.This technique allows quick fermentation about 20 times faster than batch process.

The entire fermentation process is divisible into two phases:
a)UP STREAM PHASE:
All the processes before starting fermentation like sterilization of the fermenter,preparation of culture medium etc are included in this phase.

b)DOWN STREAM PHASE:
All the different operations after the fermentation are completed like purification of fermented products etc in this phase.

ANTIBIOTICS FERMENTATION:
Antibiotics are organic compounds produced by one micro organism that inhibit the growth or kill other organism.An antibiotic may inhibit the growth of one species of organisms or many types of organisms.Based on this affect,it is of two types:
1)BROAD SPECTRUM:
If the antibiotics inhibit growth of many species then it is called broad spectrum antibiotics.
2)SPECIFIC SPECTRUM ANTIBIOTIC:
If the antibiotics inhibit the growth of specific pathogen then they are called specific antibiotic.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT:
The wonder drugs were discovered by Sir Alexander Flemming in 1928 while working on a dangerous human pathogen.In laboratory Flemming found petri plates of Staphylococcus aureus contaminated with mould.Flemming noted that some spores of mould floating into his lab through open window.This spores landed on Staphylococcus aureus colony and quickly destroyed the bacterial colony.Flemming subcultured the mould and on growing it in liquid media,he noted that the bacteriolytic substance accumulated in culture.The mould was identified as the species of Penicillium.After the name of mould,Flemming applied the name Penicillin to that bacteriolytic substance.
In further research Flemming demonstrated that Penicillin is having extremely low toxic affects on men and animals protoplama.
After the discovery of Penicillin,many scientists started their research to find another antibiotic.Later Salman Walksman in New Jersey,examined 1000's of microbes for their ability to produce antibacterial substances.Walksman isolated 1000's of different antibacterial substances produced by different species of Streptomyces.Streptomycin first reported in 1944 became a valuabe agent for the treatment of TB and other infection caused by gram -ve bacteria.

COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF ANTIBIOTICS:
1)CULTURE PREPARATION:
A small sample of the cultured stock is taken and enriched to produce more micro organisms.
2)MEDIA PREPARATION:
Different media are required at different stages of antibiotics production.The medium must consists of some carbohydrates,protein and minerals.

3)FERMENTATION:
The media contained in large fermentation tank is inoculated with pure culture of the organisms.The fermentation process is carried out in sterilized,stirred fermenter tank. It continues for 7 days and temperature is carried out at 24 degree C. Fermenting medium is constantly stirred and cerated for more production.

4)RECOVERY OF ANTIBIOTICS:
The fermented medium is filtered to remove microbes and antibiotics are obtained on treatment with butyl acetate.

APPLICATION OF ANTIBIOTICS:
1)MEDICINAL USE:
Antibiotics are used to control a number of infectious disease in human being.
2)AS FOOD PRESERVATIVES:
They have been used in preservation of food especially fresh meat ,fish etc.

APPLICATION OF FERMENTATION IN INDUSTRY:
1)ENZYME:
Several types of enzymes are commercially produced by mass culture of micro organism like alpha amylase,cellulose etc.
2)ORGANIC ACID:
Industrial preparation of organic acids at commercial scale include citric and lactic acid.
3)ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES:
Various types of alcoholic beverages are prepared by using different strains of Sacharromyces.Eg wine,beer etc.
4)ANTIBIOTICS:
Various types of antibiotics like penicillin,Streptomycin are prepared from various species.
5)AMINO ACIDS:
Out of 20 naturally occurring amino acids,12 are produced in industry by fermentation technology.
6)VITAMINS:
Several vitamins are produced in the industry by using various organisms.