Phenolic compounds and total phenolic content of commercial wines

Over the years, pathological implications have often been remarked in the free radicals formation in the human body, underlining how a diet rich in antioxidant substances can be able to limit oxidative damage. Free radicals are extremely harmful to living organisms to do they attack different constituents of the cell, which leads to acceleration of the ageing process and sometimes, even, cell destruction or, if the DNA is affected, irreversible malfunctions [1]. A wide variety of foods and drinks demonstrate a high degree of antioxidant effect and are consequently recommended in the diet to provide a prolonged and balanced dose of antioxidants beneficial to human health [2]. Grapes and grape products, particularly red wine, are a rich source of phenolic antioxidant compounds that, in addition to influence the color and organoleptic qualities also have health value. Scientific reports show that the antioxidant potential of wine is closely related to its content in phenolic compounds. The phenolic composition in wine depends, not only, on the type of grapes used for vinification, but it is influenced by fermentation, the wine making process, technological treatment and the process of ageing. In the present study we have investigated the total phenolic content (TPC) by Folin–Ciocalteu method in order to find differences in phenolic composition for wine of different vintage years. Moreover, it was determined the content of some phenolic compounds. For the phenolic determination, reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method coupled with UV-Vis detection was used [3]. The investigations were focused on commercial Italian wine varieties used mainly to produce wines of appellation of origin, in order to find possible analogies among different cultivar. The proposal method could be extended to the determination of other polyphenolic compounds and applied to routine analysis.