Healthy News for Red Wine Drinkers

Scientists now have further proof that red wine is good for the heart. New tests identified saponins - plant compounds believed to lower cholesterol - in varying levels in both red and white wine.

Previously, researchers credited the chemical compound resveratrol, which acts as an antioxidant, with reducing heart disease in moderate red wine drinkers. The new finding show the role of saponins could be just as important. 

At the university of California, Davis, scientists looked at saponin levels in six types of California wines, four red and two white. In general, they discovered red wines contained three to 10 times as many levels of saponin than white wines. Of the red wines, red Zinfandel had the highest levels, Syrah had the second highest, and Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon contained about the same amounts of saponin. Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, the two whites tested, contained much less than the reds.

' Saponins are a hot new food ingredient. People are just starting to pay attention to it,' says study author Andrew Waterhouse, Ph. D., Professor of Enology (wine chemistry) at UC Davis, He says this is the first time they have been found in wine because he says no one ever thought to look for it.

According to researchers, saponins come from the waxy skin of grapes and are dissolved into wine during the fermentation process. Foods like olive oil and soybeans also contain high levels of saponins, Usually they make up the waxy coating of plants, functioning primarily for protection.

Waterhouse says red wine contains about the same amount of saponins as resveratrol. Resveratrol is believed to block cholesterol oxidation with its antioxidant action, but Waterhouse says saponins work by binding to and preventing the absorption of cholesterol.

Source: American Chemical Society, New York City. Sept. 2003