VIEW ARTICLE    DOI: 10.1094/ASBCJ-38-0005

New Approaches to Using Spent Brewer's Yeast. Nobuhiro Watanabe, Osamu Inaida, Koichi Yamada, and Takuro Karakawa, Research and Development Laboratories, Sapporo Breweries Ltd., 1-4-1, Mita, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo, 153, Japan. J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 38:005, 1980.

Two possibilities for efficient use of spent brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces uvarum) are: 1) using yeast cells that have incorporated various essential elements as a feed and 2) using cell ingredients, especially intracellular components of yeast, as antitumor agents. Spent yeast was reincubated aerobically in 5° P wort at 26° C in the presence of various elements. Good growth and good incorporation were found for Mg, K, Ca, Cr, Fe, Zn, Ge, Se, Mo, and I. Good growth with almost no incorporation was found for Mn and As. Poor growth with good incorporation was found for Co and Cu. Yeast incorporated with selenium prevented selenium-deficiency disease in chicks and showed much lower toxicity than inorganic selenium. Intracellular components of spent yeast were obtained by destroying yeast cells directly or by destroying their spheroplasts. Antitumor activity was measured by the total packed cell volume method using ICR mice and Sarcoma-180A cells. One of these components inhibited the growth of tumors by more than 90% when administered intraperitoneally at a daily dose of 30 mg/kg for five days. Immunological tests on ICR mice suggested that the antitumor activity of these components was caused by immunological potentiation.

Keywords: Antitumor activity, Element incorporation, Spent brewer's yeast