The bioactive compounds, antioxidant capacity, and color intensity in must and wines derived from grapes processed by pulsed electric field

Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment on the content of bioactive compounds (total phenols, total flavonoids, monomeric anthocyanin content), antioxidant capacity, color intensity (CI), and sensory quality of wines derived from three varieties of grapes (Muscat Ottonel, Pinot Noir, and Merlot). PEF treatment resulted in an increase in all bioactive compounds, and consequently, an increase in their antioxidant capacity, which was evaluated by different methods. Applying PEF treatment to red grapes resulted in obtaining wines with higher CI compared to the control sample. For a better interpretation of the results and a proper discrimination of the samples in terms of the variety of grapes and PEF treatment, multivariate analyses, such as the principal component analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and hierarchical cluster analysis, were applied.