ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PALM WINE YEASTS AND A COMPARISON OF THEIR DOUGH-RAISING ACTIVITY WITH BAKER’S YEAST

Yeast isolates from fresh palm wine sample in Ugbawka, Enugu state were screened for dough- raising activity. The function of yeast flora of palm wine in leavening was explored by subjecting organisms from the wine to dough-raising tests. The yeasts isolates, tentatively identified as Saccharomyces sp, were compared with a commercial baker’s yeast for their dough-raising properties. Out of four yeast isolates, two of them were recovered as biological dough raisers. The result showed that isolates two and four has the highest dough-raising activity of 12cm3 and 11.60cm3, while isolate three produced the lowest dough raising activity when compared with baker’s yeast that gave a value of 8.40cm3. This study indicates that palm wine yeasts have good properties for raising dough in bread-making and can be exploited for commercial use.