Abstract: Wine was produced from fruits of Chaenomeles sinensis and further subjected to submerged fermentation to
produce vinegar. After adjusting the sugar concentration, the crushed fruits of Chaenomeles sinensis were subjected to semisolid-
state fermentation with active dry yeast under the conditions: addition of water at a mass ratio of 1.5:1 (m/m), initial
sugar concentration of 18%, inoculum size of 0.1%, temperature of 24 ℃, and time of 64 h, yielding an alcohol concentration
of 9.45% in the wine. Subsequently, after adjusting the alcohol concentration to 7%, the acetic acid fermentation was carried
out with an inoculum size of 10% at 34 ℃ for 80 h, giving a total titratable acidity of 4.52%. The fermentation process
took only 24 h when it was carried out in a cyclic mode by portion-wise addition of the substrate. Ten organic acids (oxalic
acid, tartaric acid, formic acid, malic acid, α-ketoglutaric acid, lactic acid, acetic acid, fumaric acid and succinic acid)
were identified in the wine and the vinegar by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). The
fermentation process presented in this study and analysis of organic acids can provide a theoretical basis for the development
of Chaenomeles sinensis fruit wine and vinegar.

Key words: Chaenomeles sinensis, fruit wine, fruit vinegar, fermentation process, organic acids