Lactic acid fermentation
metabolic process / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lactic acid fermentation is how glucose or other monosaccharide sugars are converted into lactic acid and energy. There may also be other by-products of this fermentation. It also works with other sugars, such as sucrose or lactose. Lactic acid bacteria use fermentation to get energy. Fungi, plants and animals will also use this it, if there is a lack of oxygen. As an example, it occurs in muscle cells.[1][2][3] With humans, it occurs if there's too little oxygen in the blood, known as Hypoxemia.
There are different types of lactic acid fermentation:
- Fermentation where the main product is lactic acid. This is known as homolactic fermentation.
- Fermentation which results in by-products; besides lactic acid, this will be ethanol and carbon dioxide, in the case of hexose sugars, and acetic acid in the case of pentose sugars. This is called heterolactic fermentation.
- Bacteria of the genus Bifidobacterium will create lactic acid and acetic acid.