Studies On The Biodiversity Of Yeast From Palm Wine

ABSTRACT

A total of nine-palm wine samples, three each from Umudike, Mbaise and Obowo were collected using small sterile jerry cans of 1.5 litres capacity from different palm wine tappers. The palm wine samples were serially diluted and 0.1 ml of the samples were inoculated on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA) medium and Yeast Peptone Dextrose Agar medium (YPDA) for isolation of yeasts. The yeast isolates were identified on the basis of morphological, cultural and physiological characteristics. A total of 48 isolates were obtained from the nine samples and were identified as; Saccharomyces florentius, Candida tropicalis, Candida castelli, and Saccharomyces chevalieri. Others include; Candida robusta, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosacchammyces pombe and Saccharomyces uvarum. These results show that palm wine is a natural habitat for a diverse group of yeast species.