Economic Importance of Yeast

Economic Importance of Yeast

Yeast exhibits both beneficial and harmful activities to human beings.

Advantages of Yeast

• Yeast takes part in the alcoholic fermentation of sugar molasses to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
• They are used in baking industries to make bread.
• They are used in the synthesis of protein, fat, vitamins and enzymes.
• Yeast Vite tablet is used as food value.
• Along with bacteria, the yeast gives characteristic flavour in coca beans.
• Some yeast cells are used in the treatment of skin diseases.

Disadvantages of Yeast

• Yeast spoils food, vegetables and fruits.
• They cause many plant and animal diseases.

Economic Importance of Fungi

It also posses both useful and harmful activities to the human beings.

Food:

Agaricus composters, Amanita vaginata are used as nutrient-rich food.

Used in baking industries, brewing industries:

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used in baking industries for making the bread soft and in making alcohol.

Enzymes production:

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used for the production of Invertase zymase.

Aspergillus niger? Protease, Amylase

Antibiotic preparation:

Penicillium notatum? Penicillin

Aspergillusproliferans? Proliferin

Organic acid preparation:

Citric acid? Aspergillus niger

Oxalic acid? Penicillium glaucas

In hormone production:

One of the most important plants growth hormone, gibberellin is produced by the fungus Gibberella fljikuroi.

In study:

Some fungi like Neurospora are exclusively used in different genetical studies.

Harmful effect

In spoilage of food

Several fungi are responsible for food spoilage in nature. Eg; Rhizopus nigricans spoils stored sweet potatoes. Yeast spoils the tomato.

Causes plant diseases

Several fungi destroy many agricultural crops, fruits, nut plants ornamental plants and shade trees.

Mushroom poisoning

Sometimes poisonous mushrooms like Amanita phalloides, A.vernaetc are mistaken as edible mushrooms and as a consequence, the person pops off.

A variety of fungi causes several diseases of man and animals. The names of the diseases are named after the affected organs, causal agents, discoverers, localities of occurrence etc.