C. Maragatham and A. Panneerselvam
Sixty four yeast strains isolated and identified from seven varieties of rotten papaya fruit were characterized using standard microbiological procedure. The ability of different yeast strain to produce ethanol was investicated such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces bayanus, Saccharomyces uvarum, Saccharomyces italicus, Saccharomyces pasteurianus, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Zygosaccharomyces. Their ability for wine production were tested by using sugar and ethanol tolerance tests. The best biochemically active strain is Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce wine from Co 2 papaya fruits. After fermentation for one month the highest (11.59%) alcohol concentration with corresponding residual sugar concentration of (1.87) were produced from Co 2 papaya fruits after fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. So, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was found to be the best yeast strain producing wine with the highest acceptable score of 4.8 from Co 2 papaya fruits. The study revealed the possibility of producing wine from our locally available fruits using simple, cheap, and adaptable technology with biochemically characterized yeast strains.
