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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.college
Subject: Re: Re: Production of methanol: where?
Message-ID: <764@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 25-Jan-86 11:43:29 EST
Article-I.D.: kitty.764
Posted: Sat Jan 25 11:43:29 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jan-86 05:19:33 EST
References: <507@sdcc12.UUCP>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 38
Xref: watmath net.med:3256 net.college:1022

> >     Regarding the current discussion of hangovers & methanol: I know
> > that alcoholic drinks containing methanol was a big problem during
> > the prohibition days.  What I am curious about was whether the
> > methanol was (and is) produced accidentally during fermentation (i.e.
> > is there any risk of methanol production during home wine making?), or
> > was the methanol added via some other pathway?
> 
> It is my understanding that methanol can be produced accidentally 
> when something goes wrong with the fermentation.

	I don't believe that methanol can be produced by any fermentation
process used for alcoholic beverage production.  In this process, sugar
is broken down to form pyruvates, which in turn are acted upon by the enzyme
pyruvate decarboxylase to form acetaldehyde and CO2; the acetaldehyde being
reduced through alcohol dehydrogenase to form ethanol.  I don't see how
methanol can be formed based upon this chemistry.

> This happened to some people in our village in Europe during the Second World
> War.  As I remember it, methanol caused blindness, among other
> nasty things.  I also remember that these people had borrowed a
> zinc plated wash tub from my mother to hold the fermenting mash, and 
> when they brought it back, all the zinc had been eaten away on the
> inside of the tub, so that the rusting iron underneath was laid bare,
> ruining the tub.

	It sounds to me like the blindness was caused by heavy metal poisoning,
and not methanol.  In particular, lead poisoning has been a problem with
"moonshine" for many years, and bootleg whiskey made during Prohibition.
The lead was introduced through solder used in the distillation apparatus.
Lead poisoning has many nasty effects, including "retinal stippling" where the
lead actually deposits on the retina of the eye.

==>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York        <==
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