Analysis of physicochemical and sensory parameters of wine produced from Carica papaya

Wine is one of the most ancient beverages and it consists of a complex mixture of alcohol, sugars, aldehydes,tannins, pectins, vitamins, minerals, and organic acids formed by the action of Saccharomyces cerevisiae onfruit juices. Papaya (Carica papaya) is a common plant originally from South America and grown mainly inAsian and African countries. In the present study, C. papaya fruit pulp was used for the production of wineunder controlled fermentation using S. cerevisiae. The physicochemical parameters such as pH, yeast cellcount, specific gravity, carotenoid content, and alcohol content were observed during the study. The analysiswas done once every 5 days. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analyses of wine and unfermented fruitjuice samples also were carried out. During fermentation, the pH was changed from 5.1 to 4.4. The initial valueof yeast cell count during the fermentation process was 8.5×106 cells/ml, later it attained the maximum valueof 9.53×106 cells per ml on the 5th day. It then gradually decreased to a final value of 2.92×106 cells/ml on the20th day. The specific gravity was initially 1.1573 and it decreased to 1.1483. Carotenoid content was 0.034mg/ml on the first day and it increased to 0.279 mg/ml. Alcohol content of papaya was found to be increasedduring the course of fermentation. It was estimated as 3.01% on the 5th day and it increased to 10.11% on the20th day. The overall point for the sensory analysis was 4.8.