ferment-, fermento-

1. The promotion or process of changing food components into natural preservatives or to more easily digestible nutrients with the action of yeasts, fungi, or bacteria: Making bread, brewing beers, producing wine, and the manufacturing of yoghurts and cheeses are just a few examples of fermentogens.
2. The transformations of organic matter that have been brought about in nature and which have caused various forms of diseases by micro-organisms: In 1860, the Academy of Sciences awarded Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) its experimental physiology prize for his studies of fermentogens.

Pasteur's belief that micro-organisms were responsible for many diseases led others to also believe that there were fermentogens of diseases in animals and humans.

An expert in wine production: A fermentologist knows how to turn grapes into wine by changing certain food components; such as, carbohydrates into natural preservatives by the action of yeasts, fungi, or bacteria.

Louis Pasteur, the great French microbiologist, and fermentologist, devised a method of heating liquids to temperatures that destroy harmful micro-organisms and his work in the 1860's concentrated on wines and beers, where spoilage was causing great economic losses for producers.

The science that specializes not only in the study of alcoholic beverages, but also in other forms of food: The "pasteurization" of milk is no doubt one of the most significant results of fermentology.

Other results of fermentologies include such sugary or starchy materials as cactus juice, potatoes, wild fruits, rye, and sugar cane.

Lord Joseph Lister (1827-1912), a British surgeon, applied the principles of fermentology to surgical infections and developed the theory that "infection was due to the passage of minute bodies capable of self multiplication from an infector to an infected person".

A reference to something that is not preserved or soured: All unfermented fruit juices are supposed to be fresh, sweet, and not spoiled.