Potential opportunities of thinned clusters in viticulture: a mini review

Crop thinning is a common practice performed in the vineyard consisting of whole clusters or individual fruits being removed after flowering is attained. Current studies have reported that unripe grape products as verjuice and sour grape sauce contain high content of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, sugars, organic acids, nitrogenous compounds and sterols. This mini-review overviewed the bioactive components obtained from thinned unripe grapes such as phenolic compounds, sugars, organic acids, minerals, nitrogen compounds and sterols, and their use as antibrowning and whitening agents, natural catalysts, food preservative and food additive. In addition, their beneficial effects for human health also were reviewed, as well as the practices to maximize the extraction of antioxidant compounds. Therefore, revalorizing the waste from this management practice in viticulture can increase the vineyard sustainability and farmers' economic profits. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Whole, concentrated and reconstituted grape juice: Impact of processes on phenolic composition, "foxy" aromas, organic acids, sugars and antioxidant capacity

The concentration and reconstitution processes of grape juices can result in losing compounds associated with beverage quality. In this context, three tanks containing 50,000 L of grape juice were individually concentrated up to 68 °Brix using a triple vacuum concentrator. The concentrated juice was reconstituted up to the original °Brix of the whole juice (18.4). Phenolic compounds, sugars and organic acids were quantified by high-performance-liquid-chromatography. "Foxy" aromatic compounds were also quantified by gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry. The concentration and reconstitution process resulted in significant losses (Tukey test, p < 0.01) of trans-caftaric acid, decreasing from 397.08 to 159.14 mg/L, chlorogenic-acid from 34.97 to 8.44 mg/L, aromatic furaneol compound from 9.06 to 1.93 mg/L, as well as total losses for gallic-acid, caffeic-acid, p-coumaric-acid, syringic-acid, hesperidin, pelargonidin-3-glucoside and epicatechin compounds. The concentration and reconstitution of grape juice preserved the antioxidant capacity and most of the quantified compounds, with the reconstituted juice having good nutritional quality.