Alcoholic Fermentation - History (2)
Several scientists, including Erxleben, De La Tour, Schwann, and Kützing, made discoveries in the 19th century that revealed yeast as the cause of the fermentation process. However, Eduard Buchner did not receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry until 1897 when he discovered the role of the enzyme zymase in alcoholic fermentation.
This discovery sparked the interest of other researchers, including Harden and Young, who in 1904 demonstrated that fermentation depended on a low molecular weight substance that could be retained in the pores of a dialysis membrane.
To restart fermentation, all that is needed is to add yeast again. Cozymase, a mixture of phosphate ions, thiamide diphosphate, and NAD+, was discovered by Harden and Young and characterized in 1935. Biochemist Otto Heinrich Warburg and Hans von Euler-Chelpin discovered in 1929 that nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) plays a key role in internal fermentation. Erwin Negelein and Hans Joachim Wulff demonstrated the importance of the alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme in certain subprocesses by crystallizing fermentation byproducts in 1937.
From the mid-20th century to the present day, new discoveries have focused exclusively on improving alcoholic fermentation procedures, with special attention to improving industrial efficiency through careful selection of yeast strains, maintaining optimal operating temperatures, and applying continuous fermentation processes through bioreactors.
