Impact of Sugar Type Addition and Fermentation Temperature on Pomegranate Alcoholic Beverage Production and Characteristics.

Evangelos Kokkinomagoulos,Yiannis Kourkoutas,Anastasios Nikolaou,Costas G Biliaderis,Panagiotis Kandylis

doi:10.3390/antiox10060889

Abstract

The present study focuses on the production of pomegranate alcoholic beverage (PAB) from juice of the Wonderful variety. The effect of fermentation temperature (15 and 25 °C) and type of sugar added (adjustment to 20 °Brix) on the physicochemical characteristics, bioactive compounds, and volatile composition were studied. Sucrose, concentrated pomegranate juice, concentrated grape juice, and honey were used to increase the initial sugar content. The produced PABs contained ethanol in concentrations ranging from 7.9 to 10.0% v/v and glycerol from 4.8 to 6.1 g L−1. A decrease in total phenolics content, free radical-scavenging activity, and total monomeric anthocyanin content was observed following fermentation. Total flavonoids content appeared to increase after fermentation only in the cases of concentrated pomegranate and grape juice addition. In general, 22 volatile compounds were identified in PABs (13 esters, 2 fatty acids, and 7 alcohols). Major compounds detected were 3-methyl-1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 2-phenylethanol, and ethyl acetate. These findings demonstrate the production prospect of PABs with increased ethanol content, while elaborating on the importance of fermentation temperature and the differences between the selected types of added sugars on end-product composition.

Highlights

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a well-known fruit that has been cultivated and consumed since ancient times
The fortification of pomegranate juice with several sugar types led to similar initial reducing sugar content (196–200 g L−1 ). The effect of both fermentation temperature and sugar type on reducing sugars was significant (Table 1). It appeared that the addition of CGJ led to higher remaining reducing sugars after fermentation in comparison with the rest of the fortification treatments at both temperatures, indicating that sugars were not fully utilized
The fortified raw material with CGJ resulted in the lowest ethanol content (7.9–8.9% v/v) in the fermented product as the respective residual reducing sugars were the highest (7.5–8.4 g D-glucose L−1 )

Summary

Introduction

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a well-known fruit that has been cultivated and consumed since ancient times. It has been extensively studied for its numerous beneficial effects that its consumption may have on humans, such as anticarcinogenic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory, while its applications in food products have been investigated [1,2,3]. Pomegranate is currently being consumed as fresh fruit and juice, and as pomegranate alcoholic beverage (PAB), known as “pomegranate wine”, a product of alcoholic fermentation of pomegranate juice. This is in accordance with the growing trend for the development of fermented and not fermented products based on fruit juices [6,7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion