Mother of vinegar
Mother of vinegar is a biofilm composed of a form of cellulose, yeast, and bacteria that sometimes develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids during the process that turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air and acetic acid bacteria (AAB). It is similar to the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) mostly known from production of kombucha, but develops to a much lesser extent due to lesser availability of yeast, which is often no longer present in wine/cider at this stage, and a different population of bacteria. Mother of vinegar is often added to wine, cider, or other alcoholic liquids to produce vinegar at home, although only the bacteria is required, but historically has also been used in large scale production. Discovery Hermann Boerhaave was one of the first scientists to study vinegar. In the early 1700s, he showed the importance of the mother of vinegar in the acetification process, and how having an increased oxidation surface allowed for better vinegar production. He called the mother a "vegetal substance" or "flower." In 1822, South African botanist, Christian Hendrik Persoon named the mother of vinegar Mycoderma, which he believed was a fungus. He attributed the vinegar production to the Mycoderma, since it formed on the surface of wine when it has been left open to air. In 1861, Louis Pasteur made the conclusion that vinegar is made by a "plant" that belonged to the group Mycoderma, and not made purely by chemical oxidation of ethanol. He named the plant Mycoderma aceti. Mycoderma aceti, is a Neo-Latin expression, from the Greek μύκης ("fungus") plus δέρμα ("skin"), and the Latin aceti ("of the acid"). Martinus Willem Beijerinck, who was a founder of modern microbiology, identified acetic acid bacteria in the mother of vinegar. He named the bacteria Acetobacter aceti in 1898. In 1935, Toshinobu Asai, a Japanese microbiologst, discovered a new genus of bacteria in the mother of vinegar, Gluconobacter. After this discovery, 12 genera and 59 species of bacteria were found to compose the AAB found in mother of vinegar. Description Mother of Vinegar is a single-cell fungus related to yeast. It forms a grayish veil which can be fine or more solid depending on the conditions. The veil forms in conditions that include nutrients like proteins that are found in wine, limited acidity, and ideal concentrations of alcohol. Bacteria The veil is nontoxic and is composed of cellulose and AAB. The raw materials and other manufacturing features determine what genus the bacteria that composes the AAB is from. PCR fingerprinting revealed that Acetobacter genus was the most abundant in mother of vinegar resulting from apples, while Komagataeibacter genus was most dominant in mother of vinegar resulting from grapes. Mother of vinegar from apples had A. okinawenis as the most abundant species of bacteria. Grape vinegar and the mother had K. europaeus as the most dominant bacterial species. There are also many other bacterial genera that are in mother of vinegar. Polymerase Chain Reaction Denaturing Gradient Gel