Co-Pigmentation of Caffeic Acid and Catechin on Wine Color and the Effect of Ultrasound in Model Wine Solutions.

Abstract

Wine color is considered an important indicator in judging red wine quality and is also employed to evaluate wine aging. However, wine color can be influenced by many factors. In this paper, it was investigated that the effects of caffeic acid and catechin on wine color and related mechanisms by HPLC and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy for the wine model solutions containing malvidin-3-O-glucoside. The spectrum changes of the model wine solutions (Mv-glc, Mv-glc + caffeic acid, and Mv-glc + catechin) during 120 days storage were monitored to analyze the influence of co-pigmentation on red wine color. The results indicate that the color properties of red wine could be affected by caffeic acid and catechin to a certain extent. Moreover, caffeic acid had a stronger auxiliary color effect on the malvidin-3-O-glucoside than that of the catechin in the model wine solutions, and the former effect continued to increase with prolongation of storage time. The latter effect (catechin) only had a temporary auxiliary color effect in the beginning, and weakened from red to orange yellow with increased storage time. Furthermore, ultrasound irradiation improved co-pigmentation, resulting in the modification of wine color. All results indicate that the co-pigmentation reaction of wine color could be modified by the addition of caffeic acid and ultrasonic treatment to improve the quality of red wine.