#saccharomyces

[microbes-in-hats]

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Also known as brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is commonly used in the fermentation of different alcohols, such as tequila.

Another strain, known as baker's yeast, is commonly used in baking bread and other bakery goods. A similar species, Saccharomyces exiguus, is a wild yeast found on some plants that is commonly used in sourdough starters

Photo credit: Guadalupe Zavala, et al.

[ivandurak]

Two of the published clinical reports of yeast infection say more about human desperation than the tendency of the fungus to cause disease. Both concern instances of self-inflicted Saccharomyces infection. The first, from Columbia, Missouri, in the 1970s, involved a sixty-eight-year-old man with an unusual diet. He was a health food enthusiast who medicated himself with vitamins and, in a vein unrelated to his belief in dietary supplements, drank a full pint of vodka every day. Then he began developing symptoms of influenza and was admitted to a hospital. Nothing in the case history alarmed his physicians until the patient admitted to swallowing massive quantities of brewer’s yeast. The clinical report says that he consumed up to three kilograms of dried yeast per day, which is equivalent to hundreds of the little sachets used in bread-making. There is likely a typo in the transcript. He would have needed much more than a pint of vodka to wash that down. In any case, this gentleman developed fungemia that was misdiagnosed initially as a bacterial infection. His condition improved when he “was instructed to discontinue use of brewer’s yeast.” The second case is more bizarre. It involved Vietnamese refugees in a Hong Kong detention center who injected themselves with yeast precisely in order to induce infections, and therefore to be admitted a hospital. One of the patients was a teenage boy admitted to hospital with convulsions. The other was a woman suffering from shock who presented with a serious abscess in her breast, presumably at the injection site. Once they were admitted to hospital they absconded. In the column of the table reserved for clinical outcome, the report says, “Seen running away.” One hopes that these victims survived. Concern about Saccharomyces infections has grown with reports that they are associated with the use of yeast as a probiotic, as was the case with the vodka drinker. Probiotics are microorganisms whose ingestion is thought to bestow health benefits. Probiotic yeast is sold in capsules as a treatment for a wide range of digestive disorders, and as a daily supplement to maintain a healthy bowel function. The capsules contain a freeze-dried preparation of Saccharomyces boulardii, which is probably a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, rather than a separate species. Nonetheless, it behaves quite differently from the strains of the sugar fungus used to brew beer and leaven bread. The association between the use of boulardii as a probiotic and development of yeast infections should not concern the majority of people who have benefited from the probiotic.

Nicholas P. Money. The Rise of Yeast: How the Sugar Fungus Shaped Civilization.

[clinicalherbalist]

Making persimmon candy. I took a whole bunch of persimmons and mashed them until they came out through the holes in a colander. Once they were liquified, they started fermenting immediately. Some of them i spread out on parchment paper and put in the oven at a low temperature to dry out into fruit-leather type candy. . . . Last year, i had made persimmon wine. It fermented until it was about 18% alcohol, and the only yeast i used was from a previous batch of wild fruit wine. I am now suspecting that yeast that alcohol-tolerant might naturally live on the surface of the persimmon. They are very sugary as wild fruit goes, and they stay sour until they are just about rotten. Tomorrow i am going to isolate the yeast, and see if it can survive at high alcohol concentrations. If it does i will use it and some frost-distillation to make applejack for my december wild food feast. . . . #wildfood #wildedibles #persimmon #fermentedfoods #countrywine #applejack #saccharomyces #yeast #primitiveskills

[oupacademic]

Fermentation is used not only to produce alcohol but also in the production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol, for purposes such as the production of biofuels. The types of yeast and methods used in the fermentation process are constantly being refined in the interest of efficiency and sustainability, as explored in the facts below:

The success of acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation – a process which uses carbohydrates such as starch and glucose to create acetone, butanol, and ethanol – relies on the choice of bioreactors

Currently, butanol – a substance used in biofuels – is extracted using a process which requires 220% of the energy produced by butanol itself, but methods are being developed to bring this figure below 10%

The most sustainable and environment-friendly way to produce butanol developed so far is through the microbial fermentation process

Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast has frequently been used in the fermentation process over the course of millennia, and strains of the yeast are being investigated for second-generation ethanol production

Non-conventional yeasts are being considered as a replacement for Saccharomyces in bioethanol fermentation, as these are more tolerant to stress and might be more effective in the fermentation process

Image Credit: Barrels by werner22brigitte. CC0 via Pixabay.

[heintzartisanalales]

Five starters for a mixed fermentation buckwheat sour farmhouse ale. Commercial and captured MOs from my garden. The working title so far: buckwheats, jimmy! Heintzupyourlife!#byo#brewyourown#homebrewing#mixedfermentations #milkthefunk#funkysours#yeaststarter#lactobacillus#brettanomyces #saccharomyces #farmhouseale

[clinicalherbalist]

Sugar + water + the fermenting persimmon puree = a bubbling, frothy 500 ml. of wild Saccharomyces culture. . . . Tomorrow, when the yeast has built up a big population in the flask, i will transfer samples of it into test tubes, each containing a sugar solution with a different concentration of alcohol. And that way i can see how much alcohol it can live with and continue fermenting, which is basically the limiting factor for how strong a drink it can produce. . . . Also, look at that tiny shed antler. Isn't it cute? . . . . #persimmon #saccharomyces #homebrew #shedhorn #erlenmeyer #wildfermentation

[biology-geology-beaches-india]

The Scientific Research Notes of S. Sunkavally, Printed Part, page. 213.

Dates unclear, but certainly between 2006-2012.

[biology-geology-beaches-india]

The Scientific Research Notes Of S. Sunkavally (years: 2002-2011).

1879-1881.