1. A ferment.
2. (Med.)
Defn: The morbific principle of a zymotic disease. Quain.
ZYMIC
Zym"ic, a. (Old Chem.)
Defn: Pertaining to, or produced by, fermentation; — formerly, by confusion, used to designate lactic acid.
ZYMOGEN
Zym"o*gen, n. Etym: [Zyme + -gen.] (Physiol. Chem.)
Defn: A mother substance, or antecedent, of an enzyme or chemical ferment; — applied to such substances as, not being themselves actual ferments, may by internal changes give rise to a ferment. The pancreas contains but little ready-made ferment, though there is present in it a body, zymogen, which gives birth to the ferment. Foster.
ZYMOGENE
Zym"o*gene, n. Etym: [Zyme + root of Gr. (Biol.)
Defn: One of a physiological group of globular bacteria which produces fermentations of diverse nature; — distinguished from pathogene.
ZYMOGENIC Zym`o*gen"ic, a. (Biol.) (a) Pertaining to, or formed by, a zymogene. (b) Capable of producing a definite zymogen or ferment. Zymogenic organism (Biol.), a microörganism, such as the yeast plant of the Bacterium lactis, which sets up certain fermentative processes by which definite chemical products are formed; — distinguished from a pathogenic organism. Cf. Micrococcus.