Plant Depressants: Alcohol Flashcards
How is ethanol made?
Through fermentation of sugars by Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
What are Yeasts?
Yeasts are unicellular fungi that reproduce colonially by budding (asymmetric mitotic division).
What is Brewer’s yeast used for and how does fermentation work?
Brewer’s yeast will convert sugars to CO2 and alcohol in a process known as fermentation, and is used commercially for both baking and alcohol production.
What is the difference in yeast strains used in baking versus alcohol production?
Baking: Rapidly dividing strains are preferred since they carbonate bread dough quickly.
Alcohol: Grow more slowly, tolerate much higher amounts of alcohol and produced fewer secondary waste products.
What is the larger yeast (S. pastorianus) used to produced and how does it grow?
The larger yeast is a slow growing strain and has adapted to lower temperatures and is used to produce large beer.
What was large yeast long thought to be a hybrid strain of until recent evidence was found suggesting that S. eubayanus, a wild species native to Patagonia is likely a parent?
S. cerevisiae.
What does yeast fermentation involve?
The anaerobic breakdown of sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Where is the sugar source in alcoholic beverage production generally from?
High sucrose fruits (grapes), or malted grains (usually sprouted barley grains which retain the amylase enzyme required to convert starch to sugars).
How does alcohol tolerance vary among strains?
Beer yeasts generally tolerate about 6% alcohol, whereas many strains of wine yeast can tolerate up to 16% alcohol.
What are the three major groups of alcoholic beverages?
Beer (barley), wine and cider (fruit), and mead (fermented from honey).
What were the earliest wines like?
They were naturally fermented from wild grapes and low in alcohol and high in acetic acid (vinegar).
Where and when does evidence exist from the first ever wine production?
Residue in pottery jars in Persia and southern Caucasus about 7000-8000 years ago, and Eastern Europe (Balkans) 6000 years ago.
By when was the grape vine fully domesticated and large scale wine production common in these regions?
5000 BP.
Beer at the same time.
What type of tablets (5000 BP) include recipes for making beer from wheat and barely?
Babylonian.
In what way did the ancient Egyptians revere wine and beer?
They believed them to be nutritious beverages and medicines and both were used in ritualistic ceremonies and funeral rites.
When does evidence of fermented beverages made from rice, honey and fruit in China date back to?
7000-8000 years ago.
What type of “beer”, then known as wine was produced throughout east Asia?
Cooked rice was fermented to produce “wine” (beer since rice is cereal) and sake.
How was rice wine prepared?
The rice was chewed prior to fermentation with saliva providing the enzymes necessary to convert starch into sugars.
What did the Inca produce?
A corn based ceremonial alcoholic beverage known as chichi de jora in large pottery vats.
What did the Mayans produce?
A sacred, milky alcoholic beverage from honey and bark from the leguminous balche tree.
What was the result religious significance of the balche tree?
It was banned by the conquering Spaniards due to its religious ties.
What was made in Central America and how long has it been produced?
Pulque (octli), an alcoholic beverage fermented from Agave stems, and has been produced for at least 2000 years.
Who worshipped a wine goddess and various wine deities?
Babyloninans (4500 BP).
Which text describe the medical benefits of sura (a fermented beverage of rice, wheat, sugar cane, grapes and other fruit) when used in moderation?
Indian Ayervedic texts (4000 BP)..
What does the Egyptian papyri (4000 BP) discuss the medicinal use of alcohol as?
Greeks and Romans also used alcohol for therapeutic purposes.
1) Tranquilizer
2) Analgesic
3) Soporific
4) Recommended for delivering other medicines (many plant based drugs are soluble in alcohol).
What was alcohol recommend to remove?
Irritant piles (poison ivy), to relief sore muscles (as rubbing alcohol will cool the skin), and as a disinfectant and as an anesthetic (heavy drinking prior to painful surgery or amputation).
Who recognized the deleterious effects of alcohol?
The early Hebrew and Ayurvedic cultures and later in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Who was the Middle East under the control of in the 7th century and how did this affect wine drinking?
Muslim control, and despite Islamic prohibition on drinking, the region continued with wine.
What does the Qur’an state in regard to alcohol?
Intoxicants of any kind are generally forbidden in the Qur’an and alcohol is considered an abomination that discourages prayer and turns worshippers from God.
Along with muslims, who else abstain from alcohol?
Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs.
