Free Radical Scavenging Activity and Anthocyanin Profile of Cabernet Sauvignon Wines from the Balkan Region

The present study is focused on anthocyanin derivatives characterizing the antioxidant activity of Cabernet Sauvignon wines produced from different vineyard regions in the Balkans. These bioactive compounds were quantified with a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-diode array detection (DAD) method. The antiradical activity was estimated by the ability of the wine to scavenge the stable 2,2;-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH(*)). The results show that the total anthocyanin content varied from 205.88 to 1940.28 mg/L, depending on agroclimatic factors and the enological practices of the corresponding vineyard region. The most prominent antocyanin in all investigated Cabernet Sauvignon wines was malvidin-3-O-monoglucoside, which accounted for 50.57% of total content, followed by its acetyl derivatives, 15.45%, and p-coumaryl derivatives 5.66%. The relationship between the anthocyanin derivatives and free radical scavenging activity is discussed. A high correlation between total anthocyanin content and DPPH scavenging ability of tested wines was confirmed (r(2) = 0.9619). The significant correlations were obtained between antiradical activity and the sum of 3-monoglucoside (r(2) = 0.95594), the sum of 3-acetyl-3-glucoside (r(2) = 0.9728) and the sum of p-coumaryl-3-glucoside (r(2) = 0.8873) of wine samples. It can be concluded that, the anthocyanin composition can be used as biochemical marker for the authenticity of red grape cultivar and their corresponding single-cultivar wine.