Antioxidant capacity of different red wines and effects on the susceptibility of low-density lipoproteins to oxidation in vitro

For this study 70 red wines were collected and analyzed. Total polyphenols were deter-mined according to the Folin-Ciocalteu procedure and for the total antioxidant capacity assessment, the TEAC-test was used. LDL was isolated from human plasma by rapid ultracentrifugation. The wine specific effect on the susceptibility of LDL to oxidative mo-dification was measured in the presence of copper after incubating LDL with a wine aliquot. The red wines showed antioxidant activity in a broad range. The different phenol contents of the red wines could explain the different total antioxidant capacities (r = 0.69) and different inhibition of the copper-catalysed oxidation of LDL (r = 0.79; TEAC vs. Lag-time prolongation r = 0.63). These significant correlations(p < 0.001) confirm the quantitative importance of phenolics as radical inhibitors in red wines.