INFLUENCE OF ACONITIC ACID CONTENT OF MOLASSES ON ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION

摘要

Aconitic acid, an inherent constituent of sugarcane juice, becomes concentrated in syrup and finally in molasses during sugar manufacture. Interference of this acid during sugar and alcohol production in terms of scale formation is known. However, little is known about its effect on fermentation of molasses. In order to ascertain quantitatively the effect of aconitic acid on yield of alcohol, samples of molasses procured from different sugar mills and possessing varied aconitic acid content were fermented under comparable conditions. Simultaneously, molasses samples of different weights but identical fermentable sugar content were fermented as also the samples of molasses fortified with the known quantity of aconitic acid. It was observed that, as the aconitic acid content in molasses increases, its fermentation efficiency goes down. It is, therefore, advisable to separate aconitic acid from molasses before subjecting the latter to alcohol fermentation.