Wine Authenticity and Traceability with the Use of FT-IR

Evaluation of the Quality of Selected White and Red Wines Produced from Moravia Region of Czech Republic Using Physicochemical Analysis, FTIR Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometric Techniques

The FTIR-ATR method coupled with the multivariate analysis of specific spectral areas of samples was developed to characterize two white grape varieties (Sauvignon Blanc and Hibernal) and two blue grape varieties (André and Cabernet Moravia) of wine planted and harvested in the Moravia region, Czech Republic. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were performed using fingerprint regions of FTIR spectra for all wines. The results obtained by principal component analysis in combination with linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) scores yielded clear separation between the four classes of samples and showed very good discrimination between the wine samples, with a 91.7% overall classification rate for the samples. The conducted FTIR spectroscopy studies coupled with chemometrics allowed for the swift analysis of multiple wine components with minimal sample preparation. These methods can be used in research to improve specific properties of these wines, which will undoubtedly enhance the quality of the final wine samples obtained.

Characterization of Bioactivity of Selective Molecules in Fruit Wines by FTIR and NMR Spectroscopies, Fluorescence and Docking Calculations

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopies were applied to characterize and compare the chemical shifts in the polyphenols' regions of some fruit wines. The obtained results showed that FTIR spectra (1800-900 cm-1) and 1H NMR (δ 6.5-9.3 ppm) of different fruit wines can be used as main indices of the year of vintage and quality of fruit wines. In addition to the classical determination of antioxidant profiles and bioactive substances in wines, fluorometric measurements were used to determine the interactions of wine substances with the main human serum proteins. The results showed relatively high binding properties of wines with the highest one for pomegranate, followed by kiwifruit and persimmon wines. The interactions of vitamin C, catechin and gallic acid with human serum albumin (HSA) were also examined by docking studies. The docking calculations showed that gallic acid has a stronger binding affinity compared to catechin and vitamin C. The stronger binding affinity of gallic acid may be due to three hydrogen bonds and pi-pi interactions. The fluorescence and docking studies proved that only the bioactive compounds of wines and not the amount of alcohol have high binding properties to human serum proteins. The emphasis in this report was made on the utility of FTIR, NMR and fluorescence of wines as a mean of wine authentication and its fingerprint. The findings, based on polyphenols from fruits and fruit wines, their bioactivity and health properties, offer valuable insights for future endeavours focused on designing healthy food products.

Application of Analytical Technologies in the Discrimination and Authentication of Herbs from Fritillaria: A Review

Medicinal plants of Fritillaria are widely distributed in numerous countries around the world and possess excellent antitussive and expectorant effects. In particular, Fritillariae Bulbus (FB) as a precious traditional medicine has thousands of years of medical history in China. Herbs of Fritillaria have a high market value and demand while limited by harsh growing circumstances and scarce wild resources. As a consequence, fraudulent behaviors are regularly engaged by the unscrupulous merchants in an attempt to reap greater profits. It is of an urgent need to evaluate the quality of Fritillaria herbs and their products using various analytical instruments and techniques. This review has scrutinized approximately 160 articles from 1995 to 2022 published on the investigation of Fritillaria herbs and related herbal products. The botanical classification of genus Fritillaria, types of counterfeits, technologies applied for differentiating Fritillaria species were comprehensively summarized and discussed in the current review. Molecular and chromatographic identification were the dominant technologies in the authentication of Fritillaria herbs. Additionally, we brought some potential and promising technologies and analytical strategies into attention, which are worthy attempting in the future researches. This review could conduce to excellent reference value for further investigations of the authenticity assessment of Fritillaria species.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in monitoring the wine production

The complexity of the wine matrix makes monitoring of the winemaking process from the grapes to the final product crucial for the wine industry. In this context, analytical methodologies that can combine good accuracy, robustness, high sample throughput, “green character”, and by preference real-time analysis, are on-demand to create high-quality vitivinicultural products. In the last years, Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) combined with chemometric analysis has been evaluated in several studies as an effective analytical tool for the wine sector. Some applications of FTIR spectroscopy have been already accepted by the wine industry, mainly for the prediction of basic oenological parameters, using portable and non-portable instruments, but still many others are waiting to be thoroughly developed. This literature review aims to provide a critical synopsis of the most important studies assessing grape and wine quality and authenticity, and to identify possible gaps for further research, meeting the needs of the modern wine industry and the expectations of most demanding consumers. The FTIR studies were grouped according to the main sampling material used - 1) leaves, stems, and berries; 2) grape must and wine applications - along with a summary of the basic limitations and future perspectives of this analytical technique.

Helium Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Source Treatment of White Grapes Juice for Winemaking

In the last few years, new emerging technologies to develop novel winemaking methods were reported. Most of them pointed out the need to assess the barrel aging on the wine product, fermentation process, green technologies for wine treatment for long term storage. Among these, plasma technologies at atmospheric pressure are on the way of replacing old and expensive methods for must, wine and yeast treatment, the goal being the long-term storage, aging and even decontamination of such products, and seems to meet the requirements of the winemakers. Using the principles of dielectric barrier discharge, we power up an atmospheric pressure plasma jet in helium. This plasma is used for treatment of fresh must obtained from white grapes. Our research manuscript is focused on the correlation of plasma parameters (applied voltage, plasma power, reactive species, gas temperature) with the physico-chemical properties of white must and wine (1 and 2 years old), via ultraviolet–visible and infrared spectroscopy, and colorimetry. Two types of white must were plasma treated and studied over time. The 10 W plasma source did not exceed 40 °C during treatment, the must did not suffer during thermal treatment. A higher quantity of RONS was observed during plasma-must exposure, supporting further oxidation processes. The UV-Vis and FTIR spectroscopy revealed the presence of phenols, flavones and sugar in the wine samples. Simultaneous visualization of CIE L*a*b* and RGB in color space charts allows easier understanding of wine changing in color parameters. These experimental results supporting the possible usability of atmospheric pressure plasma for winemaking.

Recent advances in NMR-based metabolomics of alcoholic beverages

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NMR-based techniques can be used for establishing metabolic “fingerprint” .

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Biomarkers for discrimination of wine varietals were identified.

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COSY and DOSY techniques may aid in assigning phenolic compounds and disaccharides.

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NMR-based metabolomic studies of alcoholic beverages remain limited in Asia.

Alcoholic beverages have a complex chemistry that can be influenced by their alcoholic content, origin, fermentation process, additives, and contaminants. The complex composition of these beverages leave them susceptible to fraud, potentially compromising their authenticity, quality, and market value, thus increasing risks to consumers’ health. In recent years, intensive studies have been carried out on alcoholic beverages using different analytical techniques to evaluate the authenticity, variety, age, and fermentation processes that were used. Among these techniques, NMR-based metabolomics holds promise in profiling the chemistry of alcoholic beverages, especially in Asia where metabolomics studies on alcoholic beverages remain limited.

Remote Sensing for Plant Water Content Monitoring: A Review

This paper reviews the different remote sensing techniques found in the literature to monitor plant water status, allowing farmers to control the irrigation management and to avoid unnecessary periods of water shortage and a needless waste of valuable water. The scope of this paper covers a broad range of 77 references published between the years 1981 and 2021 and collected from different search web sites, especially Scopus. Among them, 74 references are research papers and the remaining three are review papers. The different collected approaches have been categorized according to the part of the plant subjected to measurement, that is, soil (12.2%), canopy (33.8%), leaves (35.1%) or trunk (18.9%). In addition to a brief summary of each study, the main monitoring technologies have been analyzed in this review. Concerning the presentation of the data, different results have been obtained. According to the year of publication, the number of published papers has increased exponentially over time, mainly due to the technological development over the last decades. The most common sensor is the radiometer, which is employed in 15 papers (20.3%), followed by continuous-wave (CW) spectroscopy (12.2%), camera (10.8%) and THz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) (10.8%). Excluding two studies, the minimum coefficient of determination (R2) obtained in the references of this review is 0.64. This indicates the high degree of correlation between the estimated and measured data for the different technologies and monitoring methods. The five most frequent water indicators of this study are: normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (12.2%), backscattering coefficients (10.8%), spectral reflectance (8.1%), reflection coefficient (8.1%) and dielectric constant (8.1%).

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