Reactivity of polymeric proanthocyanidins toward salivary proteins and their contribution to young red wine astringency.

Recent studies have indicated the presence of significant amount of highly polymerized and soluble proanthocyanidins in red wine and such compounds interacted readily with proteins, suggesting that they might be particularly astringent. Thus, the objective of this work was to verify the astringency of polymeric proanthocyanidins and their contribution to red wine astringency. The precipitation reactions of the purified oligomeric procyanidins (degree of polymerization ranging from 2 to 12-15) and polymeric procyanidins (degree of polymerization ranging from 12-15 to 32-34) with human salivary proteins were studied; salivary proteins composition changes before and after the reaction was verified by SDS-PAGE and procyanidins composition changes by spectrometric, direct HPLC and thiolysis-HPLC methods.

Evolution of phenolic composition of red wine during vinification and storage and its contribution to wine sensory properties and antioxidant activity.

The objective of this work was to study the evolution of the phenolic composition of red wine during vinification and storage and its relationship with some sensory properties (astringency and bitterness) and antioxidant activities. Thus, red wine was made by a classic vinification method with Castelão and Tinta Miúda grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) harvested at maturity (3:2; w/w).

Formation of new stable pigments from condensation reaction between malvidin 3-glucoside and (-)-epicatechin mediated by acetaldehyde: Effect of tartaric acid concentration.

The objective of this work was to study the effect of tartaric acid concentration on the condensation reaction between malvidin 3-glucoside (Mv-glc) and flavanols mediated by acetaldehyde in the model solution. The model wine solutions were prepared by 12% ethanol in water (v/v) with two different l-tartaric acid concentrations (5g/l and 25g/l, respectively) and at two different pH values (3.2 and 1.

Fractionation of red wine polyphenols by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography.

A systematic method for separation of aged red wine polyphenols into various distinct fractions using combined techniques of solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography was proposed. The aged red wine polyphenols were separated into various distinct fractions including phenolic acid fraction, monomer flavanol fraction, oligomer procyanidin fraction, anthocyanin and its pyruvic acid derivative fraction, free or non-colored proanthocyanidin fraction, fraction of direct condensation products between anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins and fraction of other pigmented complexes. The phenolic composition of each fraction was verified by HPLC with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD), thiolysis, vanillin assay, HPLC coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) and multi-stage MS fragment analysis.