The Effects of Cinnamon and Ground Cumin on the Amount of Carbon Dioxide Production During Yeast Fermentation

Abstract

Yeast is frequently found in a variety of goods, such as those that are used to manufacture bread, alcoholic beverages, ethanol, and more. Yeast is necessary for the fermentation of carbohydrates into ethanol, which occurs during baking or brewing. We chose the spices cinnamon and ground cumin to test the production of carbon dioxide in the yeast. We hypothesize that the hotter spices will have a higher carbon dioxide content than milder spices. To test this hypothesis we ran 10 different trials of each control and experimental group. We tracked the data for 5 minutes, and used the data collected to calculate the averages and place the averages in a bar graph. The data showed that the control group had the most carbon dioxide production, the ground cumin had the second highest carbon dioxide production, and the cinnamon had a significantly lower production. This supported our hypothesis that the hotter spices produce more carbon dioxide.