Title:Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity in Monovarietal Red Wines
from Lazio Cultivars: A Chemometric Evaluation
Volume: 21
Issue: 4
Author(s): Giuliana Vinci*, Sabrina Antonia Prencipe, Matteo Di Renzo, Marco Ruggeri, Paola Campana and Anna Maria Tarola
Affiliation:
- Department of Management, Sapienza, University of Rome, via del Castro Laurenziano 9, 00161, Rome, Italy
Keywords:
Red wines, cultivar origin, antioxidants, anthocyanidins, HPLC-PDA, wine-making techniques, vintage.
Abstract:
Background: Antioxidant activity is currently one of the most significant characteristics
of red wines, mainly attributable to phenolic components, that enhance health-promoting
effects. To this purpose, it is necessary to implement simple, and reliable analytical methods
for evaluating such bioactive compounds in wines according to their background.
Objective: This research aims to characterize the phenolic and antioxidant activity of 48 commercial
monovarietal red wines produced from eight native Lazio cultivars (“Cesanese del
Piglio”, “Cesanese di Olevano Romano”, “Cesanese da Castel Franco”, “Olivella del
Frusinate”, “Nostrano”, “Syrah”, “Merlot”, and “Nero Buono”), according to different winemaking
techniques and vintage.
Methods: The characterization was carried out through the chromatographic determination of
anthocyanins (HPLC-PDA), spectrophotometric assays for total phenolic content (TPC), total
flavonoid content (TFC), total phenolic acid content (TPAC), and antioxidant activity (AA)
through ABTS, and DPPH assays, coupled with chemometric tools (Principal Component
Analysis and Cluster Analysis).
Results: The quantitative determination of phenolic compounds showed significant (p > 0.05)
differences according to wine cultivars. Wine belonging to ‘Syrah’, ‘Nero Buono’, ‘Cesanese
del Piglio’ and ‘Cesanese di Olevano Romano’ cultivars showed the highest TPC (2.673 –
4.094; 1.963 – 3.859, 2.104 – 3.794, and 2.668 – 3.549 mg GAE/L, respectively), as well as the
highest TFC and TPAC.
Conclusion: In addition, wines sharing cold maceration (i.e., COR and CP samples) resulted in
the highest total anthocyanidin content with a variable malvidin and cyanidin distribution percentage;
as well as younger wines (2019) showed the highest TPC and anthocyanidins content.
In these regards, the natural groupings among samples obtained by chemometrics reinforce the
influence of cultivar origin, the wine-making process, as well as wine aging on phenolic content
and compositions, thus acting as fingerprints for specific grape cultivars.