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It said chemicals in red wine grapes interfere with
the ability of bacteria to contribute to tooth decay and also may hold
clues for new ways to lessen the ability of bacteria to cause life-threatening,
systemic infections, the University of Rochester Medical Center said last
Friday in a news release.
The findings are the result of collaboration between the center and the
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University.
The study was funded by USDA.
The study, reported on http://www.eurekalert.org,
examined the make-up of polyphenols in red wine grape varietals and their
ability to interfere with bacteria, which produces acid and the building
blocks of the dental plaque.
"Overall, the phenolic extracts disrupt essential virulence traits
for a widespread, destructive oral pathogen, but without killing it,"
said Olga I. Padilla-Zakour with the Station.
Cabernet Franc extracts were seen to be the most effective, with Pinot
Noir in second place. None of the extracts were seen to actually kill
the bacteria.
Despite these positive early results, lead researcher Hyun Koo said that
the findings should not be taken as a signal to drink more wine.
"Most foods contain compounds that are both good and bad for dental
health, so the message is not 'drink more wine to fight bacteria',"
Koo added.
They obtained red wine grapes and pomace from wineries in the Finger Lakes
area of New York state, including Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Baco Noir,
and Noiret, and prepared polyphenolic extracts from these.
The use of waste material from an industrial process is an economical
and environmentally friendly way to find benefit for nutrients that would
otherwise be thrown away or end up in animal feed.
More than 80 per cent of all grapes grown are used to make wine, and
the fermented waste, known as pomace, is understood to contain at least
as many polyphenols as the whole fruit.
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