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Zymase

Zymase is an enzyme critical in the catalyzation of glycolysis, or the fermentation breakdown of sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. This particular reaction conversion occurs naturally with yeasts. Whenever zymase is present as well as sugar, fermentation will occur. As sugar is gradually broken down, the fermentation process slows down, and is hardly ever totally complete in any alcohol.

When brewing beer, zymase works secondarily to other enzymes. The process starts with diastase, which acts on malt to convert grain starches into the sugar maltose. Brewer's yeast provides another enzyme, maltase, to convert maltose into glucose; finally the zymase also found in yeast converts glucose into ethanol.

Every culture involves a form of this process; in some, glucose is found directly in fruits and sweet, non-starchy vegetables converted into ethanol with the simple one-step process of zymase catalyzation. In some cultures with only starchy vegetation, zymase is introduced from saliva in preliminary mastication.

Zymase was first isolated in yeast in 1897 by German chemist Eduard Buchner, who fermented sugar in the laboratory. His work proved enzymes caused the fermentation of carbohydrates, and won him the 1907 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Web Resources On Zymase

Alcoholic Fermentation Without Yeast Cells
Alcoholic fermentation by yeast cells

Book Resources On Zymase

Fermentation Microbiology and Biotechnology by Mansi El-Mansi
Principles of Fermentation Technology by Stanbury et al.

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