Antioxidant Capacity of Red Wine Four Times Higher than White

Antioxidant Capacity of Red Wine Four Times Higher thanWhite

WAREHAM, Mass.--An Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) methodfor lipophilic antioxidants in plasma or serum was developed and validated byscientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and BrunswickLaboratories LLC (www.brunswicklabs.com)that allows blood antioxidant capacity to be measured using both hydrophilic andlipophilic ORAC assays, according to Brunswick. With the ORAC assay, we arenow able to determine the hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant capacity ofbiological samples--from food sources to human fluids--against the samebiologically relevant reactive oxygen species, the peroxyl radical, saidDavid Bell, director of business development at Brunswick. This capability canassist in building a bridge between the antioxidant value of nutrients andactual outcomes in human health. The study was recently published in the Mayissue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (51,11: 3273-9, 2003)(http://pubs.acs.org/journals/jafcau).

Another study measured the antioxidant capacity, phenolics, anthocyanins, andoligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs) in red and white wines from grapes.According to Brunswick, it is the first time that antioxidant scavenging in bothred and white wines has been correlated to specific bioactive compounds. Thetotal OPC content averaged 177 mg/L in red wines and 8.75 mg/L in white wines.The study also found a significant difference in antioxidant capacity, asmeasured by ORAC value: The average ORAC value for red wine was four timeshigher than that for white wines in the study. The studys authors concludedthere appears to be a direct positive correlation between total antioxidantcapacity and OPC content in wines.