application of microbes with his implementation
Answers
Explanation:
Applications Of Microbes
1] In Household Products
You must have seen people add a small amount of curd to fresh milk. In time, this milk at suitable temperature then turns into curd! How does this happen? This is due to the action of microorganisms called Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB).
The small amount of curd added as a starter culture to milk contains millions of these bacteria, which multiply at suitable temperatures turning milk into curd. LAB also improve the nutritional value of milk by increasing vitamin B12. They also play a significant role in keeping a check on disease-causing microbes in our gut.
Other uses of microorganisms in our household products include the dough used to make idli or dosa. Similarly, the dough used to make bread is fermented using baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). The process of fermentation produces CO2 which gives the bread the puffed-up appearance. Toddy (a drink in southern India) is also the result of microbial activity on sap from palms.
Other uses involve fermentation of fish, bamboo-shoots and soybean. Another product made using microorganisms is cheese. For example, the large holes seen in ‘Swiss cheese’ is due to the amount of CO2 produced by the bacterium Propionibacterium sharmanii.
2] In Industrial Products
Industries also use microbes to make products of value to humans. Since products are made on a large-scale in industries, microorganisms are also grown in bulk in large tanks called ‘fermentors’.
Applications of microbes
Industries use microbes to make the following products:
(A) Fermented Beverages
The baker’s yeast that is used to make bread, is also used to ferment malted cereals and fruit juices to make beverages such as beer, whiskey, wine, brandy etc. The raw material used and the type of processing (distillation or no distillation) gives rise to different alcoholic drinks. For example, processing without distillation produces wine and beer, whereas distillation of fermented broth produces whisky and brandy.
(B) Antibiotics
‘Anti’ means against and ‘bio’ means life. Microbes produce chemicals that can kill or stop the growth of disease-causing organisms. These are antibiotics. The discovery of antibiotics in the twentieth century was very important to human health.
The scientist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered the first antibiotic – Penicillin. During World War II, Penicillin was extensively used to treat wounded American soldiers. Deadly diseases such as plague, whooping cough, diphtheria which claimed many lives in the past, are now treatable because of antibiotics.
(C) Chemicals, Enzymes And Other Bioactive Molecules
The microbial activity also helps to produce chemicals like organic acids and alcohols. Examples of organisms used are Aspergillus niger (citric acid), Clostridium butylicum (butyric acid), Acetobacter aceti (acetic acid).
The detergents used to remove oily stains contain enzymes such as lipases derived from microbes. Another microbe ‘Streptococcus’ produces Streptokinase that helps to remove blood clots in patients suffering a heart attack.
Microbes (Trichoderma polysporum) also produce bioactive molecules like cyclosporin A. They are used to suppress the immune system during organ transplant procedures. Microbes such as Monascus purpureus produce statins which help to lower blood cholesterol levels.
3] In Sewage Treatment
Have you ever wondered what happens to the large amount of sewage (wastewater) humans generate every day? It is treated in Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to make it less harmful before releasing into natural water bodies. The microbes present in the sewage itself help in the treatment. It involves the following two st