Studies on Fruit Wine Production from Mixed Fruits of Pomegranate (Punica granatum) and Sweet Oranges (Citrus sinensis) Using Palmwine Yeast (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae)

Abstract

Mixed fruit wine was produced from fruits of Pomegranate (Punica granatum) and Sweet oranges (Citrus sinensis), using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisae) isolated from palm wine. The fresh palmwine was allowed to sediment and the sediment was inoculated onto Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) in duplicates. The plates were incubated at room temperature for 24hours for the isolation of yeast strain. The must was mixed in the ratio of 2:1 for pomegranate and sweet oranges, respectively.  The primary and secondary fermentation of the wine lasted for 7 and 14 days during which the pH, specific gravity, temperature, reducing sugar and alcohol content of the wine was observed. specific gravity reduces drastically, the alcohol content increased and the reducing sugar level reduces. It was also observed that the titrable acidity was within the normal limit of 0.5% to 1.0%. The pH range is between 3.36  to 3.71. At the end of fermentation, the alcoholic content in the wine ranged from 0.252% to 7.492%. Specific gravity values gradually decreased from 0.961 to 0.034 throughout the fermentation period. The decrease was irrespective of the yeast strain and fruit used in the wine production. The temperature increased from 31.5OC from the first day of the fermentation to 33.9OC on the 14th day of the fermentation. This study shows that an acceptable and quality wine can be produced from the combination of pomegranates and sweet oranges with yeast isolated from palm wine.