The fermentation of palm wine at varying temperature (0,30 and 45oc) have been studied by monitoring spectrophotometrically the absorbance of glucose with Dinitrosalicyclic acid (DNS) at 560nm wavelength for five days. The effect of lemon juice (citrus limonum) as additive on the fermentation was also studied. The introduction of lemon juice shows that the additive inhibits the fermentation of palm wine. The kinetics of uninhibited and inhibited fermentation of palm wine is found to be a pseudo first order with rate constants, kun =0.45, kin=0.36 respectively at room temperature (30oc). These values of k vary with temperature. Average value of activation energy (Ea) of the inhibited fermentation reaction was found to be 6.892J/mol and this was higher than the average value of activation energy obtained for the uninhibited fermentation reaction which was 3.504J/mol. Delayed fermentation of palm wine as needed by local Nigerians consumers of fresh palm wine can be achieved by addition of lemon juice.
