@Abiqua on fermentation:
Thank you for the notes dump - bits and pieces are coming back to me from my uni days.
As I understand it you are saying that anaerobic decomposition leaves more carbon/hydrogen bonds unbroken and hence more energy and more complex molecules remain in the fermented product whereas in aerobic decomposition the microorganisms extract more of the energy and oxidise more of the C-H bonds = more fully breaks the substrate down?
Whats the implication for the nutritive value of an FPE? I interpret it as there is more of the complex biomolecules preserved as opposed to being burnt up in aerobic decomposition.
Whats the practical application of this, I haven't been able to understand anything further that.
Admittedly, there is much to research before any solid conclusions...but...
One thing of mention is the production of organic acids and other metabolites....from just the studies conducted on fermented foods, the array of metabolites produced by microlife in fermented solutions is vast and with every new study they seem to discover a new metabolite....The end product of silage seems to attest to this fact as well...provide it with abundant microlife and the nutrient content seems to increase over just an aerobic drying [rett].....
And yes, the energy issue is also key because of some factors related to breaking down of compounds to the their simplest form....So it is not necessarily that fermentation breaks down more easily from sheer force [less oxidation, more reduction] , it is that the pathway seems to utilize energy more efficiently and altogether eliminates some of the process that aerobic organisms have to use to achieve the same effect in breaking down or utilizing compounds....
For example it might be easier to digest plant material [cellulose and especially lignin] in a anaerobic environment where I believe they can convert to monosaccharides [fructose, glucose] as a direct end product and then you might be able to finish the end product aerobically....
As I understand the process in aerobic composting is that part of the energy usage is due to the fact that aerobic microlife don't seem to be as efficient as breaking down plant material directly into monosaccharides, they have first convert it into a polysaccharide like sucrose 1st, then disassociate into mono sugars, in a whole another step which consumes energy......this is one reason I stopped using blackstrap as a tea..as it would create excess foam....
even though oxygen isn't present in anaerobic environments, it still is supplied elementally from broken down compounds....so breaking down polysaccharides in anaerobic environments doesn't seem to rely solely on oxygen uptake, but in an aerobic environment, organisms are measured on the their BOD, biochemical oxygen deman...and I think that in teas, microbes, break down initially the blackstrap into monosaccharides, but then run out of oxygen to now use and eat the mono sugars they have produced......just my opinion at this point.....
The main area I seem to lack solid understanding in
