## 3 Results and Discussion
### Ethanol, Organic Acids and Residual Sugar Concentrations  
The results obtained for residual sugar, lactic and acetic acid and ethanol are presented in Table 2.  
According to the results, residual sugar levels were decreased while the levels of organic acids were increased, demonstrating the efficiency of the strain _Lactobacillus plantarum_ ATCC 14917 for lactic acid fermentation of pomegranate juice. In particular, the residual sugars concentration was reduced (statistically significant) by approximately 20% (65.0 g/L) and 23% (62.9 g/L) after the 3 rd and the 4 th weeks of storage respectively. On the other hand, the level of lactic acid increased (statistically significant) every week reaching its maximum value at the 4 th week of storage (3.75 g/L), while acetic acid concentration was determined after the 2 nd week reaching its maximum value at the last week (0.86 g/L). Ethanol concentration significantly increased from 0.3% after 24 h of fermentation to 1.0% (\(v/v\)) at the end of the 3 th and 4 th week of storage.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Temperature (\({}^{\circ}\)C)** & **Time** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Viability (log cfu/mL)**} \\ \cline{3-5}  & & _Lactobacillus Plantarum_ ATCC 14917 & **Yeasts \& Fungi** & **Coliforms** \\ \hline
30 & 0 & 11.42 \(\pm\) 0.16 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0 & 0 \\
30 & 24 h & 10.51 \(\pm\) 0.15 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0 & 0 \\
4 & Week 1 & 10.23 \(\pm\) 0.94 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0 & 0 \\
4 & Week 2 & 10.54 \(\pm\) 0.26 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0 & 0 \\
4 & Week 3 & 10.28 \(\pm\) 0.27 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0 & 0 \\
4 & Week 4 & 8.83 \(\pm\) 0.58 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0 & 0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Similar superscript letters in columns denote no significant differences at an alpha = 0.05 (ANOVA, Duncan Post  
Hoc
Multiple Comparisons).  
\end{table}
Table 1: Viability of the _Lactobacillus plantarum_ ATCC 14917 cells in the fermented pomegranate juices after fermentation (24 h in 30 \({}^{\circ}\)C) and over 4 weeks of storage at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Time** & **Sugars (g/L)** & **Lactic Acid (g/L)** & **Acetic Acid (g/L)** & **Ethanol (\% \(v/v\))** \\ \hline
24 h & 82.6 \(\pm\) 0.5 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1.26 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \textless{}0.1 & 0.3 \(\pm\) 0.1 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Week 1 & 75.3 \(\pm\) 0.9 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 2.86 \(\pm\) 0.08 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{}0.1 & 0.43 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ Week 2 & 75.2 \(\pm\) 2.1 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 2.87 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.30 \(\pm\) 0.10 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.73 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ Week 3 & 65.0 \(\pm\) 0.8 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 3.12 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 0.43 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 1.0 \(\pm\) 0.1 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ Week 4 & 62.9 \(\pm\) 0.8 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 3.75 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 0.86 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 1.0 \(\pm\) 0.1 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Similar superscript letters in columns denote no significant differences at an alpha=0.05 (ANOVA, Duncan Post Hoc  
Multiple Comparisons).  
\end{table}
Table 2: Analysis of sugars, organic acids and ethanol in the pomegranate juices fermented by \(L\). _plantarum_ ATCC 14917 at first 24 h at 30 \({}^{\circ}\)C and during storage at 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 4 weeks.