| The
researchers, who work at Italy's University of Pavia,
included Gabriella Gazzani, Ph.D.
First, they went to a local grocery store, where they
bought some red and some white wine.* Back at their
lab, the researchers stripped the wine of alcohol. They
did that to prevent ethanol from interfering with their
lab tests.
Next, the researchers marinated cavity-causing streptococcal
bacteria in the wines. Both types of wine countered
those bacteria and other streptococcal bacteria that
cause some cases of throat infection.
Red wine might have had more antibacterial properties
than white wine, but that wasn't certain, Gazzani's
team notes.
The researchers also isolated acids found in red wine
and white wine and tested those acids against the same
bacteria, called S. mutans and S. pyogenes.
The isolated acids were more effective against the
bacteria than the wines. The researchers reason that
while wine fights S.mutans and S.
pyogenes., Wine also contains compounds that
dilute those benefits, to some extent.
The study is quite preliminary. It appears online in
the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
* The article refers to Pinot Nero as the white
wine, which is actually also red like the Valpolicella
they picked out as the red wine. Perhaps, they picked
up some other white – most likely a Pinot Bianco
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