Abstract
Originating in the grapes, monomeric anthocyanins in young red wines contribute the majority of color and the supposed beneficial health effects related to their consumption, and as such they are recognized as one of the most important groups of phenolic metabolites in red wines. In recent years, our increasing knowledge of the chemical complexity of the monomeric anthocyanins, their stability, together with the phenomena such as self-association and copigmentation that can stabilize and enhance their color has helped to explain their color representation in red wine making and aging. A series of new enological practices were developed to improve the anthocyanin extraction, as well as their color expression and maintenance. This paper summarizes the most recent advances in the studies of the monomeric anthocyanins in red wines, emphasizing their origin, occurrence, color enhancing effects, their degradation and the effect of various enological practices on them.
Highlights
Anthocyanins, known as anthocyans, are water soluble flavonoid pigments that, depending on pH, and in some cases complexing agents, can contribute diverse colors such as red, purple and blue [1,2]
The aim of this paper is to summarize both of the basic knowledge and the newest achievements in the field of monomeric anthocyanins in red wines
Though copigmentation can noticeably affect the color of young red wines, there are various factors which influence the formation of these anthocyanin complexes, such as the pH values, cofactor and pigment structures, and their concentrations [101,130,134,135]
Summary
Anthocyanins, known as anthocyans, are water soluble flavonoid pigments that, depending on pH, and in some cases complexing agents, can contribute diverse colors such as red, purple and blue [1,2] They are widely spread throughout the plant kingdom, and they can occur in almost all tissues of higher plants, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits [3]. Numerous studies have revealed the potential pharmacological properties of anthocyanins and their derived compounds in red wines on human health [17] Such benefits mainly include free radical scavenging and antioxidant activity, protective effects against UV irradiation and on cardiovascular health, anticancer and antimutagenic activity [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]. We hope this paper will be a valuable reference resource, which can provide beneficial inspiration for the future research in this exciting and rapidly expanding field
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