OPTIMUM PARAMETERS FOR WINE PRODUCTION FROM POMEGRANATE FRUIT JUICE

Pomegranate fruits are a very rich source of antioxidants, Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), potassium, flavonoids and have numerous health benefits. It may help decrease the risk of having a heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. These characteristics of pomegranate have great impact on the quality of wines. So there might be a scope for large scale manufacturing of the pomegranate wine as it has many health benefits than grape wine Thus, the present study is aimed at investigating the fermentation parameters of pomegranate wine.  Fermentation of pomegranate was carried out by a yeast strain. The present study provides information on the parameters like inoculum size, pH, incubation temperature, substrate concentration and incubation period involved during wine production. These parameters are the part and parcel of wine production, without the knowledge of these parameters one cannot make a tasty and good quality wine. We see a significant variation between residual sugar % (w/v) & alcohol % by applying ANOVA for all parameters. Analysis reveals that best wine from pomegranate can be produced at an inoculum size of 8% v/v and pH 4.0 at the incubation temperature of 37 °C. Further, it can be defined better if we incubated neither less nor more than 7 days. Under these conditions, alcohol content of the wine reached to 10.1%.  This study will provide a good reference for future industrial production of pomegranate fruit wine.