Fermentation

• Class Teacher
Dr. Riffat Siddique
Assistant Professor (BPS-19)
Department of Botany
Lahore College for Women University,
Lahore Pakistan.
• Course Description

Course Title: PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY

Course code: Maj/Bot-416
Credit hours: 4 (3+1)
• Class
Course : BS IV, 8th Semester
Major: Botany
 Introdution To Fermentation
• Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar to acids, gases or alcohol.
It occurs in yeast and bacteria, and also in oxygen-starved (Deficient ) muscle
cells. Fermentation, chemical process by which molecules such as glucose are
broken down anaerobically.
• More broadly, fermentation is the foaming (Un-healthy) that occurs during the
manufacture of wine and beer, a process at least 10,000 years old. The frothing
results from the evolution of carbon dioxide gas, though this was not recognized
until the 17th century.
• French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur in the 19th century used the
term fermentation in a narrow sense to describe the changes brought about by yeasts
and other microorganisms growing in the absence of air (anaerobically); he also
recognized that ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide are not the only products of
fermentation.
 Fermentation

• Definition: Fermentation is the chemical

transformation of organic substances into simpler
compounds by the action of enzymes, complex organic
catalysts, which are produced by microorganisms such
as molds, yeasts, or bacteria.

• Enzymes act by hydrolysis, a process of breaking down

or predigesting complex organic molecules to form
smaller (and in the case of foods, more easily
digestible) compounds and nutrients.
 HISTORY OF FERMENTATION
• Fermentation is a natural process. People applied fermentation to make products such as
wine, mead (Made of Fermented honey and water), cheese and beer long before the
biochemical process was understood.
• In the 1850s and 1860s Louis Pasteur became the scientist to study fermentation when he
demonstrated fermentation was caused by living cells.
• The first solid evidence of the living nature of yeast appeared between 1837 and 1838 when
it was concluded as a result of microscopic investigations that yeast was a living organism
that reproduced by budding.
• The word "yeast," it should be noted, traces its origins back to the Sanskrit word meaning
"boiling." It was perhaps because wine, beer, and bread were each basic foods in Europe,
that most of the early studies on fermentation were done on yeasts, with which they were
made. Soon bacteria were also discovered; the term was first used in English in the late
1840s, but it did not come into general use until the 1870s, and then largely in connection
with the new germ theory of disease.
HISTORY OF FERMENTATION
• The view that fermentation was a process initiated by living organisms soon
aroused fierce criticism from the finest chemists of the day.
• A long battle ensued, and while it was gradually recognized that yeast was a
living organism, its exact function in fermentations remained a matter of
controversy.
• The chemists still maintained that fermentation was due to catalytic action or
molecular vibrations. The debate was finally brought to an end by the great
French chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) who, during the 1850s and 1860s,
in a series of classic investigations, proved conclusively that fermentation
was initiated by living organisms.
• In 1857 Pasteur showed that lactic acid fermentation is caused by living
organisms.
 HISTORY OF FERMENTATION
• In 1860 he demonstrated that bacteria cause souring in milk, a process
formerly thought to be merely a chemical change, and his work in identifying
the role of microorganisms in food spoilage led to the process of
pasteurization.
• He defined fermentation (incorrectly) as "Life without air," but correctly
showed specific types of microorganisms cause specific types of fermentations
and specific end products. In 1877 the era of modern medical bacteriology
began when Koch (a German physician; 1843- 1910) and Pasteur showed that
the anthrax bacillus caused the infectious disease anthrax.
• This epic discovery led in 1880 to Pasteur's general germ theory of infectious
disease, which postulated for the first time that each such disease was caused
by a specific microorganism. Koch also made the very significant discovery of
a method for isolating microorganisms in pure culture.
 TRADITIONAL FERMENTATION
• Traditional fermentation technology, as mentioned in the literary texts, is several
thousand years old.

• The fermentation technology employed a variety of processes and was put to a large
number of uses.
• Fermentation has been widely used for the production of a wide variety of substances
that are highly beneficial to individuals and industry.
• Over the years, fermentation techniques have gained immense importance due to their
economic and Environmental advantages.
• Ancient techniques have been further modified and refined to maximize productivity.
• This has also involved the development of new machinery and processes. Two broad
fermentation techniques have emerged as a result of this rapid development:
• 1. Solid State Fermentation (SSF). 2. Submerged Fermentation (SmF).
 SOLID STATE FERMENTATION
• Solid state (substrate) fermentation (SSF)
has been defined as the fermentation
process occurring in the absence or near-
absence of free water.

• Solid state fermentation (SSF) is another

method used for the production of
enzymes, which involves the cultivation
of microorganisms on a solid substrate,
such as grains, rice and wheat.

• SSF employs natural raw materials as

carbon source such as assava, barley,
wheat bran, sugarcane bagasse.
SELECTION OF MICRO-ORGANISM AND
SUBSTRATE

• Selection of Micro-organism is one of the key factor for improved yields of the product.

• Bacteria, Yeast and Filamentous Fungi can be used.

• Filamentous Fungi has shown better results growing in the solid substrate fermentation.

• Substrate also plays important role in determining the growth of micro- organisms, there
by increasing the product yield.

• Substrate is chosen such a way that it should provide physical support as well as nutrients
to the growing culture.
 APPLICATIONS
Applications of SSF as described
before, Solid State fermentation is being
employed in various fields ranging from
pharmacology to bioremediation,
covering various aspects of biodiversity
conservation.

• Production of Industrial Enzymes

• Production of Bio pesticides

• In Bioleaching

• In Bioremediation
ADVANTAGES OF SSF
 SUBMERGED FERMENTATION
• In the submerged process, the substrate used for fermentation is always in liquid state
which contains the nutrients needed for growth.

• The fermentor which contains the substrate is operated continuously and the product
biomass is continuously harvested from the fermenter by using different techniques then
the product is filtered or centrifuged and then dried.

• Submerged fermentation is a method of manufacturing bio molecules in which enzymes

and other reactive compounds are submerged in a liquid such as alcohol, oil or a nutrient
broth.
 APPLICATIONS
• Submerged Fermentation (SmF)/Liquid Fermentation (LF).

• SmF utilizes free flowing liquid substrates, such as molasses and broths.

• This fermentation technique is best suited for microorganisms such as

bacteria that require high moisture.

• An additional advantage of this technique is that purification of products

is easier.
 TYPES OF FERMENTATION
• There are basic two type of fermentation:

• Ethanol fermentation, is the alcoholic fermentation, is the production of ethanol and

carbon dioxide
•
• Lactic acid fermentation refers to two means of producing lactic acid:

• Homolactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid exclusively

• Heterolactic fermentation is the production of lactic acid as well as other acids and
alcohols.
 ETHANOL FERMENTATION
• The chemical equation below shows the alcoholic fermentation of glucose, whose chemical
formula is C6H12O6.
• One glucose molecule is converted into two ethanol molecules and two carbon dioxide
molecules.
• C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2
• C2H5OH is the chemical formula for ethanol.
• Before fermentation takes place, one glucose molecule is broken down into two pyruvate
molecules. This is known as glycolysis.
• Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which
converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol
and carbon dioxide as a side-effect.
• Ethanol fermentation has many uses, including the production of alcoholic beverages, the
production of ethanol fuel, and bread cooking.
ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION
 LACTIC ACID FERMENTATION
• It is a metabolic process by which glucose and other six-carbon sugars (also,
disaccharides of six- carbon sugars, e.g. sucrose or lactose) are converted into
cellular energy and the metabolite lactate.

• If oxygen is present in the cell, many organisms will bypass fermentation and
undergo cellular respiration; however, facultative anaerobic organisms will both
ferment and undergo respiration in the presence of oxygen.

• Lactate dehydrogenase catalyzes the interconversion of pyruvate and lactate with

concomitant interconversion of NADH and NAD+.
LACTIC ACID FERMENTATION
 HOMOLACTIC FERMENTATION

• It is the simplest type of fermentation.

• The pyruvate from glycolysis undergoes a simple redox reaction, forming lactic
acid.
• Overall, one molecule of glucose (or any six-carbon sugar) is converted to two
molecules of lactic acid: C6H12O6 → 2 CH3CHOHCOOH
• It occurs in the muscles of animals when they need energy faster than the blood
can supply oxygen. It also occurs in some kinds of bacteria (such as lactobacilli)
and some fungi.
 HETEROLACTIC FERMENTATION

• In heterolactic fermentation, where some lactate is further metabolized

and results in ethanol and carbon dioxide (via the phosphoketolase
pathway), acetate, or other metabolic products, e.g.:
C6H12O6 → CH3CHOHCOOH + C2H5OH + CO2

• Heterolactic fermentation is in a sense intermediate between lactic acid

fermentation, and other types, e.g. alcoholic fermentation.
FERMENTATION PROCESS
 BATCH FERMENTATION
• Batch fermentation ; Nutrients are added in the fermentation for the
single time only the growth continuous until the particular nutrient are
exhausted.
BACTERIA-POPULATION GROWTH
CURVE
CHARACTERISTICS OF A BATCH
FERMENTATION SYSTEM
CONTINUOUS FERMENTATION
CONTINUOUS FERMENTATION
DISADVANTAGES OF CONTINUOUS
FERMENTATION
FED BATCH FERMENTATION
FED BATCH FERMENTATION
 ADVANTAGES
• 1. Preserves and enriches food, improves digestibility, and enhances the taste and flavour of
foods.
• 2. Potential of enhancing food safety by controlling the growth and multiplication of a
number of pathogens in foods.
• 3. Important contribution to human nutrition, particularly in developing countries, where
economic problems pose a major barrier to ensuring food safety.
• 4- Low energy consumption due to the mild operating conditions relatively low capital and
operating costs relatively simple technologies.
• 5- They cause highly specific and controlled changes to foods by using enzymes.
• 6- Preservation and detoxification of the food.
• 7- Waste treatment.
• 8- Health related product.
 DISADVANTAGES

• Hazardous microbial contamination always exist in fermented food.

• The uneven distribution of salt in lactic acid fermented fish products

and contamination of Aspergillus flavus in traditional starter cultures
for rice wine and soybean sauce result in severe food poisoning
incidences.

• Health (obesity, cancer).

SOURCES/REFERENCES

• https://
www.slideshare.net/AbdulRahmanShaikh2/fermentation-72
117793
• https://
www.slideshare.net/DiyaKhan11/fermentation-76494495
• https://www.slideshare.net/shyleshmurthy/fermentation-ty
pes