1. Zymase (also known as alcoholase) is an obsolete term for an enzyme complex that catalyzes the fermentation of sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide. It occurs naturally in yeasts. Zymase activity varies among yeast strains. Zymase is also the brand name of the drug pancrelipase. == Cell-free fermentation experiment == Zymase was first isolated from the yeast cell in 1897 by a German chemist named Eduard Buchner who fermented sugar in the laboratory without living cells, leading to the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The experiment for which Buchner won the Nobel Prize consisted of producing a cell-free extract of yeast cells and showing that this "press juice" could ferment sugar. This dealt yet another blow to vitalism by showing that the presence of living yeast cells was not needed for fermentation. The cell-free extract was produced by combining dry yeast cells, quartz and diatomaceous earth and then pulverizing the yeast cells with a mortar and pestle. This mixture would then become... from wikipedia.org