Study of the oxidative evolution of tannins during Syrah red wines ageing by tandem mass spectrometry

A dual-functional single-atom Fe nanozyme-based sensitive colorimetric sensor for tannins quantification in brandy

Traditional methods of tannins detection suffer from complex pretreatment, long detection time, and limited sensitivity. Modern techniques like liquid chromatography require expertise, involve tedious result processing, and lack effective data visualization. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative detection method that simplifies pretreatment and detection steps, reduces analysis time, and provides visualized results. In this study, a novel colorimetric sensor based on single-atom Fe nanozyme (Fe@CN-20) was developed for tannins detection. Fe@CN-20 exhibited laccase-like and oxidase-like activities, enabling simultaneous oxidation of tannins and a substrate called TMB. Tannins competed with TMB, allowing quantification of tannins content. The Fe@CN-20/TMB system provided a detection range of 5-100 mg/L tannic acid, with a detection limit of 0.13 mg/L (S/N = 3). Analysis time was approximately 30 min. The platform successfully quantified tannins in brandy, showing less than 5% deviation compared to the standard method. The sensor was simple, sensitive, rapid, and provided strong visualization.

Straightforward smartphone assay for quantifying tannic acid in beverages based on colour change of Eu3+/polyethyleneimine complex

Tannic acid (TA)-a natural product-is a polyphenol derivative that occurs in certain kinds of beverages. A large amount of TA could give rise to an unpleasant flavour and could negatively affect the human body by causing stomach irritation, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and even death. Thus, the need exists for a simple TA detection procedure that meets specific criteria such as on-site analysis, portability, and affordability. Herein, we present a new TA assay, which is based on the fluorescent quenching effect of an efficient fluorophore, and which comprises a smartphone-integrated homemade reader system. The fluorescent polyethyleneimine-derivatised polymer (FP), a strong emitter at 510 nm, was synthesised with the aid of a facile sonication method. In the presence of Eu³⁺ ions, TA quenches the fluorescence of the FP via electrostatic interaction. A smartphone was used to capture an image of the FP undergoing fluorescence for conversion to RGB values. The blue channel was chosen for further analysis because it offered the highest R²-value compared to the red and green channels. We verified these results using a commercial spectrofluorometer and calculated the limit of detection of this assay as 87 nM and 20 nM for the homemade reader and spectrofluorometer, respectively. The detection range for TA with the proposed assay is 0.16-66.66 μM. The application of the proposed method to real beverage samples for TA detection demonstrates its analytical applicability.

Investigation of the Quinone-quinone and Quinone-catechol products using 13C labeling, UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap/MS

Quinones are highly reactive oxidants and play an essential role in inducing quality deterioration of fruit and vegetable products. Here, a novel stable isotope-labeling approach in combination with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and UPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap/MS, was successfully applied in tracking quinone reaction pathways in both real wines and model reaction systems. Unexpectedly, the binding products of quinone-quinone and quinone-catechol that are not derived from either nucleophilic reaction or redox reaction were discovered and showed the significant high peak area.Self-coupling reactions of semiquinone radicals might provide a possible interpretation for the formation of quinone-quinone products, and a charge transfer reaction coupled with a complementary donor-acceptor interaction is feasibly responsible for the products with a quinone-catechol structure. These findings endow a new perspective for quinone metabolic pathway in foods.

Development of a new paper-based voltage step electrocoagulation technique and application to wine classification

This study developed a novel voltage step electrocoagulation (VSEC) technique on paper for analysis and classification of red wine samples. The concept relies on the electrode system applying voltage steps along a strip of filter paper soaked with a wine sample. The system employed a cathode array system (CAS) for voltage step application and an aluminium anode undergoing corrosion to form the green sludges responsible for wine color bleaching along the paper. The VSEC technique led to the shade of colors along the paper which can be observed by the naked-eye or using image processing software. The system was applied to classify 15 wine samples into different groups and to perform dilution and adulteration tests. In addition, the approach could be applied to approximate antioxidant properties of the wine samples as observed via the correlation between the results from VSEC and IC₅₀ values obtained from the DPPH assay with an R² of 0.76.