Describe the role of microbes in the production of industrial products.

Explanation

Microbes in Industrial products : A number of industrial products valuable to human beings are produced with the help of microbes. The two common ones are alcoholic beverages and antibiotics.
Alcoholic Fermentation : Microbes especially yeasts have been used for the production of alcoholic beverages from time immermorial . Yeast species used in alcoholic fermantation are Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Brewer .s yeast ). S ellipsoides (wine yeast ) , S cake (sake yeast ) and S. pirefomis (Ginger Beer/ Ale yeast ).
Depending upon the raw material and the type of processing , the alcoholic drinks are of two types :
(i) Without Distillation : Wine and beer are produced without distillation . Beer is an undistilled product of grain mash fermentation , while wine is produced from fruit juice without distillation.
(ii) With Distillation : Whisky , brandy and rum are produced by distillation of the fermented both .
Antibiotics :
(a) Antibiotics are chemical substance which are produced by some micobes and can kill or retard the growth of other (disease causing ) microbes .
(b) An antibiotic may be board spectrum i.e, it can kill or destroy a number of pathogens that belong to different groups with different structure and wall compostion , or specific i.e., effiective against only one type of pathogen.
(c) Most of them are produced by actino mycetes , specially the genus Streptomyces and filamebntous fungi .