The Influence of Pantothenate Concentration and Inoculum Size on the Fermentation of a Defined Medium Bysaccharomyces Cerevisiae

Laboratory fermentations were carried out using defined media containing from 0.02 to 0.40 mg pantothenate 1−1 and a brewing strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae at inocula of 1 × 106 to 1 × 107 cells ml−1, Cell size, increase in cell number, increase in yeast weight, production of ethanol. n-propanol, isobutanol, isoamyl alcohols, acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate were measured. All the properties were influenced to some extent by pantothenate concentration and/or inoculum size but no general correlations were found. At high inoculum levels variation in the pantothenate concentration above 0.1 mg 1−1 did not have a major effect on the total quantity of volatile compounds produced but did alter the relative proportions of the individual compounds.