By Alba M. Ramos-Pineda, Ignacio García-Estévez, Montserrat Dueñas, M. Teresa Escribano-Bailón

This week post is about the interaction between salivary proteins and wine flavanols. In a recent study conducted by Alba María Ramos-Pineda and her group in Salamanca University, a synergic effect of the coexistence of two salivary-proline-rich proteins fractions (basic and acidic) on the interaction with flavanols were evaluated by HPLC-DAD, DLS and MALDI-TOF. It was observed a clear improvement of the interaction between (epi)catechin and proline-rich proteins when both types of proteins are blended. (epi)Catechins seem to bind preferentially basic proline-rich proteins, although the medium size aggregates flavanol-basic proline-rich proteins formed could favour the interaction with acidic ones giving rise to soluble mixed aggregates. Find out more

By Lei Zhang

Electronic tongue (E-Tongue), as a novel taste analysis tool, shows a promising perspective for taste recognition. In this post, a voltammetric E-Tongue system is described. This E-Tongue was used to measure 13 different kinds of liquid samples, such as tea, wine, beverage, functional materials, etc.. The average recognition performance of 13 analytes achieves 98%. A number of research has fully confirmed that bionic E-Tongue can be used in industrial quality control, food quality analysis, etc. E-Tongue and E-Nose could be an optimistic start for revealing the biological taste and olfactory mechanism in the course of development of world artificial intelligence. Find out more

By Sohaib Haseeb, Bryce Alexander, Ricardo Lopez Santi, Adrian Baranchuk

Wine has been consumed for many years and is suggested to play an important role in the improvement of cardiovascular risk factors. Wine consumption has been inversely related with ischemic heart disease, and the alcohol-blood pressure association, in most studies, follows a J-shaped curve. These results have been attributed to the molecular constituents of wine, namely ethanol and polyphenols. Due to the continued interest in wine as a biological beverage, in this post the chemistry of wine as clinicians, including its chemical composition is reviewed. Biological effects of wine components and directions for future research are also explored. Find out more