Alcohol is the important component produced during the
development of fermentation based herbal formulations. These
formulations are required to contain 40-80 g/l of alcohol. This alcohol
causes the extraction of water insoluble active ingredients from the
herbs [1,2]. The flowers of the plant Woodfordia fruticosa are used as
inoculums during making of these formulations [3]. This process uses
the natural yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae present on the flowers [4-
5]. Yeast S. cerevisiae contains the enzyme invertase which causes the
hydrolysis of sucrose to glucose and fructose. Enzyme zymase further
converts glucose to alcohol and carbon dioxide [6]. 1 mole of sucrose
converted to 4 mole of ethanol and 4 mole of carbon dioxide. The
average conversion rate of total fermentable sugar to alcohol can be
used to predict the level of alcohol in final product. The conversion rate
used by European Union is alcohol produced (% v/v) is the sum of total
reducing sugar (glucose and fructose) in g/l divided by 16.83 [7].