Diastase

“ It may be said that some albuminous substances have this property, but it must be borne in mind that these bodies, like gluten, for example, only possess it after the commencement of the decomposition. The albuminous matter approaching nearest to cerealine is the diastase, for it is only a transformation of the cerealine during the germination, the proof of which may be had in analyzing the embryous membrane, which shows more diastase and less cerealine in proportion to the advancement of the germination: it differs, however, from the diastase by the action of heat, alcohol, etc. ”

“ But when we consider the fact that the starch does not begin to gelatinize until the temperature is raised to 152 degrees, which is already about 30 degrees above the most favorable temperature for the activity of the diastase, and the fact that the diastase is killed at a temperature of about 175 degrees F., we can readily see why the gelatinization of starch in the oven is of little assistance to the diastase in the conversion of starch into sugar. ”

“ Diastase determines the change from starch to dextrine and sugar—saccharification; yeast, the change from sugar to alcohol—fermentation; mother of vinegar, the change from alcohol to acetic acid—acetification; and a peculiar mould, the change from acetic acid to CO2 and water. But what is far more wonderful and significant is, that, associated with each of these ferments, except diastase, and therefore with each of these descensive changes, except the change from starch to sugar, or saccharification, there is a peculiar [Pg 185] form of life. ”

“ This diastase exists nowhere outside of the animal economy, except in seeds during the process of germination, or sprouting. When the seed, or cereal, or vegetable, is exposed to proper influences of moisture and warmth, such, for example, as are supplied by the earth in spring-time, the process of germination begins, and from the germ diastase is liberated. The function of the diastase thus set free is the conversion of the food elements in the seed into assimilative nutriment for the young and tender plant. It is the digestant of food, whether the thing fed be plant or animal. ”

“ Malt is a ferment made from some grain, usually from barley, the grain being allowed to germinate until the ferment diastase is developed.
There is no doubt that a number of foods, containing malt are valuable in the hands of physicians to assist in converting starch into dextrin or sugar, where diastase is not formed in sufficient quantity, just as pepsin is an aid in the digestion of protein,—but eaten indiscriminately, there can be no question that it is more important [Pg 155] for the stomach and intestines to perform their natural work and thus keep their strength through normal exercise. ”

“ The difference in the behavior of fresh specially prepared Taka-Diastase and the market sample is very clearly shown. No one questions the fact that fresh laboratory samples of Taka-Diastase may show a moderate converting power on starch. But we have to deal with the activity of market samples only, and Sherman’s work and our own show the low digesting power of the product as physicians may secure it on the market. ”

“ The diastase is thus produced, and the transformation of starch into sugar (or maltose) accomplished, without employing any elements other than those found in the wheat and barley, making a perfect food for those with weak digestion, and who cannot digest the carbohydrates as presented in soft, mushy foods.
Thousands of invalids remain so, not knowing the cause of their disease. It is safe to say that one person in every three, among coffee users, has some form of incipient or advanced disease. ”

“ Amylase (or diastase, as it was first named and is still commonly called) is probably the most widely distributed enzyme of plants. It is found in practically all bacteria and fungi; in practically all seeds (it has been found in active form in seeds which were known to be over fifty years old) ; in all roots and tubers; and in practically all leaves, where it is located in the stroma of the chloroplasts.
It appears to exist in two modifications, known, respectively, as (a) translocation diastase and (b) diastase of secretion. ”

“ It is the presence of diastase in malt which alone converts the starch of the grain into sugar during the operation of mashing with hot water; and hence the absolute necessity of employing water at the proper temperature, as on this depends the strength and sweetness of the wort, and consequently its fitness for undergoing the vinous fermentation, and for making beer. Vegetable albumen and gluten also possess the property of exciting the saccharine fermentation, but in a considerably inferior degree to diastase. ”

“ What was needed, and for which many of the most patient investigators were searching, was a diastase which would do for the starchy elements of the food what pepsin does for the proteids. The digestion of food in man has been the subject of much patient and methodical study and investigation during the last two decades, notably by Ewald, Kellogg, Hayem, and Winter, and others, resulting in the placing of the therapeutics of disordered digestion upon an exact scientific basis. ”

“ It dissolves in water and dilute alcohol; by strong alcohol it is precipitated from its solutions as the hydrated compound, C6H10O5⋅H2O. Diastase converts it eventually into maltose, C12H22O11; and by boiling with dilute acids (sulphuric, hydrochloric, acetic) it is transformed into dextrose, or ordinary glucose, C6H12O6. It does not ferment in contact with yeast, and does not reduce Fehling's solution. If heated with strong nitric acid it gives oxalic, and not mucic acid. ”

“ The widest discrepancy between the values as claimed by the manufacturer and those found by actual tests seems to be shown in the case of Taka-Diastase. The liquid preparation has been tested a number of times in different samples and has always been found weak. Some samples, in fact, were quite inert. This ferment appears to lose strength very rapidly in solution, as the manufacturers now concede. The stability of the solid product is also far from satisfactory, and appears to be less than that of the ferment as marketed some years ago. ”

“ Treating it with malt, which, in a manner not yet known, by a substance contained in it (diastase) , has the power of lacerating the cuticles of the starch granules. The diastase contained in malt is said to be a solid, white, tasteless, uncrystallised body, soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol. Dissolved in water, it turns sour very soon. ”

“ More than three years have now elapsed since the publication of the Council’s findings regarding Taka-Diastase—​sufficient time, it is believed, for the manufacturers to modify either their claims or the product itself, and thus again make it eligible for inclusion with New and Nonofficial Remedies. With this idea in mind new specimens of Taka-Diastase and Liquid Taka-Diastase were purchased from a Chicago drug house and the preparations reinvestigated. The following is the report of this reinvestigation. ”

“ In plants, the seeds are the chief seat of enzyme activity; in animals, certain glands, such as the salivary glands and the pancreas. The mucous membrane of the stomach and intestines also secrete enormous quantities.
The production of enzymes by bacteria was observed by Wortmann in 1882. It has been found that the secretion of the enzymes depends upon the composition of the nutrient medium in which the bacteria are grown. For instance, Pfeffer found that the secretion of diastase by Bacillus megatherium depended upon the amount of cane sugar in the nutrient medium. ”

“ It is not to be found before grains or tubers begin to sprout, yet, “such is its energy, that one part of it is sufficient to render soluble the interior portion of two thousand parts of starch, and to convert it into sugar [N] .” Strong as is the analogy between starch and gum, yet diastase does not convert gum into sugar; the one being as completely soluble as the other, its intervention is clearly unnecessary. Neither does it act on sugar. It is found, and exerts its powers, only where it is required. ”

“ To the scientist of today the doctrine of spontaneous generation is a thing of the past and the aphorism omnis ovum ex ovo is dominant. The argument drawn from the saccharizing of starch in the germinating seed by the operation of 15diastase is inapplicable, as the diastase is produced by the living cells of the germinal part of the seed, which are thus the counterpart of the disease germ. ”

“ When one of these liquids in a proper state of dilution is made to act upon starch, or when for that purpose a liquid is chosen which does not act upon it energetically, such as diastase, bile, pepsin, or saliva, it is easy to obtain a residue, which according to Nägeli, is no longer capable of swelling up in boiling water, nor is immediately turned blue by iodine, except on the addition of sulphuric acid ”

“ CEREALINE.--The cells composing the embryous membrane contain, as already stated, the cerealine, but after the germination they contain cerealine and diastase, that is to say, a portion of the cerealine changed into diastase, with which it has the greatest analogy. It is known how difficult it is to isolate and study albuminous substances. ”

“ Of late years the stomach has been greatly aided in its functions by prepared or predigested foods. The action of diastase, in converting starch into grape sugar, has been taken advantage of, and cereals treated with diatase, malted milk, lactated and peptonized foods, have proven a boon to the enfeebled digestion, while the intelligent study of dietetics has done much to relieve the physician and promote the health of the individual by right living. ”

“ Pasteur considers that the yeast-cell secretes a sort of diastase which changes starch or cane-sugar into glucose, on which the cell then lives, decomposing the glucose into alcohol, carbonic acid, etc. Koch and others now assert that a bacillus produces the souring of milk, and another the butyric acid fermentation.
9 The assertion of some advocates of the "germ theory of disease," that only living organisms reproduce their kind, loses weight as an argument in view of the natural history of small-pox and analogous diseases ”

“ This consists of farinaceous foods such as farina, arrowroot, cream of wheat, corn meal, wheatena, malted breakfast foods cooked thoroughly and given in the form of gruels, and some of the proprietary infant foods, such as Mellin’s Food, Eskay’s Food, Racahout. These foods may require the addition of Taka diastase to make them more readily digested. They leave the stomach more rapidly than any of the others, and for this reason will be found to give less discomfort than the foods containing a high percentage of protein and fat. ”

“ A. M. A., March 30, 1912, p. 954) and because the Maltzyme Company makes no definite statement with regard to the diastase (malt enzyme) content of its preparations.126 For this reason it had been the referee’s intention to propose the deletion of all Maltzyme preparations when their period of acceptance expired in 1919. As, however, the present Maltzyme preparations are in contravention with the Council’s requirements, he recommended that the acceptance of these preparations be canceled now. ”

“ Dilute alkali favors oxidation and dilute acid favors the reduction. Light favors the reduction of oxyluciferin.
Apparently luciferin and oxyluciferin have identical chemical properties. Neither is digested by the enzymes: malt diastase, ptyalin, yeast invertase, pepsin, trypsin, steapsin, amylopsin, rennin, erepsin, urease or enzymes occurring in the water extracts of dried spleen, kidney, or liver. Luciferase is destroyed only by pepsin (probably) , trypsin, erepsin, and something in spleen and liver extract. ”

“ That such enzymes are formed in the protoplasm is evident from the behaviour of hyphae, which have been observed to pierce cell-membranes, the chitinous coats of insects, artificial collodion films and layers of wax, &c. That a fungus can secrete more than one enzyme, according to the materials its hyphae have to attack, has been shown by the extraction of diastase, inulase, trehalase, invertase, maltase, raffinase, malizitase, emulsin, trypsin and lipase from Aspergillus by Bourquelot, and similar events occur in other fungi. ”

“ The organism, which is performing this process all the time, or after every meal, does it in a different way, without special heating and without the acid. A soluble ferment, a diastase or enzyme, serves as the oxidizing agent to produce the same result. Looking at the beginning and the end, the two operations are the same. The special agent gives up none of its substance. It withdraws after having accomplished its work, and not a trace of it is left. Here, in the mechanism of the action of these soluble ferments, resides the mystery, still complete, of vital chemistry. ”

“ The Council has authorized publication of the following report dealing with two internal secretion specialties—​Secretogen Elixir and Secretogen Tablets—​to call attention to the unfounded and extravagant claims made for this class of products.
W. A. Puckner, Secretary.
Test tube experiments show that pepsin hydrolyzes proteins in acid solutions; that pancreatin digests protein in alkaline liquids, and that diastase converts starch into sugar. Based on these facts, it was assumed that these ferments would aid digestion. ”

“ This hydrolysis is brought about by the enzyme "diastase," which is present in the sprouting grain.
Maltose is easily soluble in water, and crystallizes in masses of slender needles. It is a reducing sugar; readily forms a characteristic osazone; is strongly dextrorotatory (specific rotatory power +137°) ; and is readily fermented by ordinary brewer's yeast, which contains both "maltase" (the enzyme which hydrolyzes maltose to glucose) and "zymase" (the alcohol-producing enzyme) . When hydrolyzed, either by dilute acids or by maltase, one molecule of maltose yields two molecules of glucose. ”