Wine: a potential source of antimicrobial compounds

With increase in the socioeconomic status, the demand of the health and nutraceutical food is increasing day-by-day. Wine contains a wide variety of the biologically active compounds including antimicrobial compounds (phenolics, acids, alcohols, bioamines, etc.) which possess the numerous health benefits. The concentration of these compounds changes according to the raw material their varieties and vinification process. Phenolics, such as epicatechin, gallic acid, catechin, caffeic acid, vannillic acid, p-coumaric acid and resveratrol, are present in different wines. Wine also contains various acids such as tartaric acid, succinic acid, acetic acid and malic acid. Alcohol includes majorly the ethanol with a minute quantity of methanol and other higher alcohols, whereas the bioamine includes the ethanolamine, ammonia and histamine. These all compounds have the ability to possess antimicrobial activity either independently or in the conjugative form with the other compounds. In this article, efforts have been made to document the different antimicrobial compounds present in wines and their antimicrobial activity. This review has the potential to attract readers; mainly researchers and industrialists for the future study and product development in the wine industry.