this document aims to provide a summarized HD explaination about the role of microbes in human welfare . Microbes in human welfare play crucial roles in areas like medicine, agriculture, and environmental management. Beneficial microbes contribute to the production of antibiotics, vaccines, and fer...
A common example is the production of curd from milk. Micro-organisms such as
Lactobacillus and others commonly called Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) grow in milk and
convert it to curd. During growth, the LAB produces acids that coagulate and partially
digest the milk proteins. It also improves its nutritional quality by increasing vitamin
B12. In our stomach too, the LAB play very beneficial role in checking disease causing
microbes.
The dough, which is used for making bread, is fermented by using baker’s yeast
(Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
“Toddy”, a traditional drink of some parts of southern India is made by fermenting sap
from palms.
Microbes are also used to ferment fish, soya bean and bamboo-shoots to make
foods. Cheese, is one of the oldest food items in which microbes were used. The large
holes in ‘Swiss cheese’ are due to production of a large amount of CO2 by a bacterium
named Propionibacterium sharmanii. The ‘Roquefort cheese’ is ripened by growing a
specific fungus on them for a particular flavour.
Microbes in Industrial products:
Production on an industrial scale requires growing microbes in very large vessels called
Fermentors.
a) Fermented Beverages:
The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae used for bread making and commonly called
brewer’s yeast, is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices to produce ethanol. Wine
and beer are produced without distillation whereas whisky, brandy and rum are produced by
distillation of the fermented broth.
b) Antibiotics:
Antibiotics are chemical substances, which are produced by some microbes and can kill
or retard the growth of other disease causing microbes.
Pencillin was the first antibiotic to be discovered and it was a chance
discovery. Alexander Fleming while working on Staphylococci bacteria, once observed a mould
growing in one of his unwashed culture plates around which Staphylococci could not grow. He
found out that it was due to a chemical produced by the mould and he named it Pencillin after
the mould Pencillium notatum. Later, Ernest Chain and Howard Florey made its full potential
effective antibiotic.
c) Chemicals, Enzymes and other Bioactive Molecules:
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