Molecularly imprinted polymers: an innovative strategy for harvesting polyphenoles from grape seed extracts

Spain is the country with the largest wine-producing area in the EU and its productivity is largely controlled applying fungicides. However, residues of these compounds can move and contaminate surface and groundwater. The objective of this work was to evaluate the capacity of bioadsorbents from different origin to adsorb and immobilize tetraconazole by themselves or when applied as organic soil amendment, and to prevent soil and water contamination by this fungicide. The adsorption of tetraconazole by 3 organic residues: spent mushroom substrate (SMS), green compost (GC) and vine pruning sawdust (VP), as well as by vineyard soils unamended and amended individually with these residues at 1.5% (w/w) was evaluated using the batch equilibrium technique.

The ’Furmint’ is the most important grape variety in the Tokaj Wine Region, constituting around 65% of its vineyard area. Before the phylloxera disease many types were grown, but as selection started in the 20th century, its diversity dramatically narrowed. As a result, the cultivation of Furmint was based mainly on two heavy-cropping clones, T.85 and T.92 at the end of the ’80s. Aims of present clone research take into account that after solely quantity as target, quality emerged in the 1990’s and most recently, typicity appeared as more private estates began their own selection program.

Wine is one of the most representative components of Mediterranean diet. Moderate wine intake together with food, has been positively correlated with reduced risk of many chronic diseases. This beneficial effect seems to be ascribed to elevated polyphenolic content of wine [1]. Traditional approaches for the identification of wine biomarkers consumption include targeted metabolomics that focuses on the quantification of well-defined metabolites, losing a valuable information about a massive number of compounds. On the other hand, untargeted metabolomics can disclose a large quantity of signals corresponding to potential biomarkers in a single analysis with high sensitivity and resolution.

Bacterial antibiotic resistance is a major current health problem. Polyphenols have demonstrated antibacterial activity, and in this work we studied the effect of oenological polyphenols on the growth of intestinal multidrug-resistant strains of human and animal origin. Two Enterococcus faecium strains, resistant to vancomycin and other antibiotics, and four Escherichia coli strains, resistant to ampicillin and other antibiotics, were included in this study. All strains showed multidrug resistant phenotypes and genotypes to at least two antibiotic families.

The effects of climate change in viticulture are currently a major concern, with heat waves and drought affecting yield, wine quality, and in extreme cases, even plant survival. Ancient grapevine varieties have high intravarietal genetic variability that so far has been explored successfully to improve yield and must quality. Currently, there is little information available on intravarietal variability regarding responses to stress. In the current work, the intravarietal genetic variability of several Portuguese varieties was studied for yield, must quality, and tolerance to abiotic stress, through indirect, rapid, and nondestructive measurements carried out in the field.