Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice: Rosemary and Clove as Inhibitors in Baker’s Yeast Fermentation

Abstract

In this study, yeast goes through a process known as fermentation where the chemical compounds of the yeast break down over a certain amount of time. This specific process is great for biofuels because the Baker’s Yeast is more than capable of turning their sugars into fuel. Fermentation of yeast is very sensitive, and many different factors can affect the production of ethanol and thus CO₂ (Lobb et al.) Ethanol is produced during the fermentation as well as CO₂. Certain spices act as inhibitors to the production of CO₂ in fermentation. Clove and Rosemary were chosen because of their inhibitory qualities. Our research was novel because the use of inhibitors such as clove and rosemary in differing concentrations in relation to CO₂ is a niche concept.