zymase

Harden had shown in 1906 that fermentation requires a dialysable substance, called co-zymase, which is not destroyed by heat.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010

Buchner assumed in the yeast juice the presence of a uniform ferment or enzyme, known as "zymase".

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966

Buchner's experiments showed unequivocally that fermentation is a catalytic process caused by the action of enzymes, as had been suggested by Berzelius for all life processes, and Buchner called his extract zymase

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010

Harden and Young also demonstrated that the process stops before all sugar (glucose) has been used up, but it starts again on addition of inorganic phosphate, and they suggested that hexose phosphates are formed in the early steps of fermentation. von Euler had done important work on the structure of co-zymase, shown to be nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD, earlier called DPN).

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010

Eduard Buchner (1860–1917) discovered that zymase, a cell-free yeast extract, caused fermentation, thus resolving a long-standing controversy over “vital” and “inorganic” ferments.

1882 2001

This phosphate afterwards undergoes a mutation in the presence of co-zymase, inasmuch as a glucose diphosphate and an active glucose are formed, after which the latter yields the necessary material for the subsequent stages of the fermentation.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966

Harden explained this by saying that a high-molecular enzyme, the zymase proper, was left on the filter, which let through a low-molecular complementary enzyme, which for the sake of brevity was called co-enzyme or co-zymase.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966

This demonstration of the part of mutase played by the co-zymase, or in other words of the identity of co-zymase and co-mutase, is of fundamental importance, for it has fully revealed the central position in the process of fermentation of the complementary enzyme in question.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966

The researches of von Euler and his pupils have further led to the concentration of the co-zymase and to a far more exact study of its properties than had been previously possible.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966

The production of a co-zymase with a high activity has also shown in a brilliant manner the character of that enzyme as a specific activator.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1929 - Presentation Speech 1966