Phenolic composition and radical scavenging activity of commercial Greek white wines from Vitis vinifera L. cv. Malagousia

Abstract

Seven commercial white wine samples of the Malagousia cultivar were investigated for the first time with regard to their phenolic composition and radical scavenging activity. Total phenol content, corrected for ascorbic acid contribution (0–47mg gallic acid equivalents/L of wine), ranged between 241 and 336mg gallic acid equivalents/L of wine. On the other hand, the range for total hydroxycinnamates was 51.5–122.4mg chlorogenic acid equivalents/L of wine and that for total flavanols 19.6–68.8mg catechin equivalents/L wine. Fifteen phenolic compounds were identified and quantified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the selective ion monitoring and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector. Tyrosol, caftaric, caffeic and 2-S-glutathionyl caffeoyl tartaric (GRP) acids were the major phenolics in all samples with mean concentrations of 12.32, 10.71, 10.17 and 4.79mg/L wine, respectively. Catechin (3.75mg/L) and p-coumaric acid (3.04mg/L) followed in abundance. Variations in the values of GRP/caftaric (0.1–4.6) and caffeic/caftaric (0.4–4.2) acid concentrations, suggested differences in the degree of oxidation on one hand and hydrolytic processes during production and bottling on the other. Despite these variations, the radical scavenging activity of samples examined with DPPH and ABTS+ assays (mean value 0.85 and 3.45mmol Trolox equivalents/L of wine) indicated a high efficiency in comparison to literature data on native and foreign white wines. The present findings can be useful for both technological and nutritional purposes.