Practical Experiments
In order to throw some light upon this question I undertook a series of experiments, the result of which I give below.
Preliminary experiments were made with five different commercial brands of malt extract. Their reducing-sugar content and diastatic activity were determined. The percentage of reducing sugar showed no great variation and needs no further comment. The diastatic activity, however, varied considerably. By the diastatic activity is meant the number of times its (own) weight of maltose a given quantity of extract will produce when allowed to act upon acid-free soluble starch for one hour at a temperature of 40 degrees C. (104 degrees F.).
The activities of the five extracts mentioned above are as follows: No. 1—8.56, No. 2—15.71, No. 3—8.60, No. 4—9.69, No. 5—20.13. These results were obtained under similar conditions, and are, therefore, strictly comparable. It is quite evident that these extracts have different sugar-producing values. No. 5, for example, will produce 2.35 times as much sugar as No. 1.