Polyphenolic phytochemicals present in certain plant tissues exhibit multifunctional properties, in terms of expressing in vitroantioxidant activity. In the case of wines, which can be considered as very complex mixtures of polyphenols, a trend has been revealed by previous studies regarding the correlation of values from antioxidant tests based on different chemical backgrounds. In this respect, 25 aged red wines, along with some characteristic polyphenolic antioxidants, were employed to carry out specific antioxidant tests, including the widely used DPPH• stable radical and a ferric reducing assay. The results showed that the values arising from these two tests correlated very well (r2 0.8761) at a 99.9% significance level (p<0.001). On such a basis, and using the information derived from the examination of the pure components, the findings were discussed from a mechanistic point of view to examine whether particular red wine constituents are responsible for the antioxidant behaviour observed.
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