The family of anthocyanins found in grapes is touted to provide protection against oxidative species linked to heart disease and aging. Typically ethanol is used as a solvent to extract anthocyanins from either the whole fruit or the pomace. We have been investigating alternative methods of processing the fruit and pomace in order to simultaneously increase recovery and stability. Through a non yeast, fermentation-based process, we were able to obtain a higher quality preparation than that obtained solely by ethanol extraction.

This presentation will summarize our findings and suggest an efficient methodology to produce antioxidant extracts from plant material in general. Specifically, V. vinifera A1575 was used as a source material due to its high phenolic content (9000 mg/kg fruit) and high ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity). By manipulating fermentation of A1575, preparations of antioxidants with polymeric content as high as ca. 70% were prepared, with high total recovery (>90% compared to methanol extract standard).