The tradition of drinking a glass of Champagne (in France and many EU countries), cava (sparkling wine in Spain), sake (traditional rice wine in Japan), whisky (UK), vodka (Russia) at the New Year’s Eve celebration at midnight is a ritual that dates back hundreds of years.
What can cyclodextrins do to improve the quality of alcoholic beverages? Some examples from the latest literature based on Scopus search:
- The addition of CDs to red wine induced a significant enhancement of the color intensity. Furthermore, the evolution of variius anthocyanin forms and the content of monomeric anthocyanins revealed that β-CD is a superior favorable cofactor during wine aging, but for long-term aging, 2-HP-β-CD and 2-HP-γ-CD are more beneficial in promoting the formation of polymerized anthocyanins and color stability. (Liu et al. 2024)
- Vitamins, such as retinol (vitamin A), tocopherol (vitamin E), and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as well as other natural products such as resveratrol (RVT) can be incorporated into alcoholic beverages such as red, white, and rosé wine, and spirits in the form of cyclodextrin complexes in order to increase the added nutritional value of the final product. (Lagoutari et al. 2024)
- Applying cyclodextrin-based sorbents, such as beta-cyclodextrin bead polymer obtained by crosslinking beta-cyclodextrin with epichlorohydrin, some harmful components like mycotoxins can be removed from the wine without affecting the wine quality (color, total polyphenol content, or taste) when applied at low (5–10 mg/mL or below) concentrations. However, the levels of certain polyphenols (e.g., trans-resveratrol and quercetin) can be markedly affected. (Fliszár-Nyúl et al. 2023)
- The polymer can also remove the off-taste or malodor of wines by sorption of volatile phenols such as guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, 4-ethylguaiacol and 4-ethylphenol). In this study, two CD polymers were prepared from β- and γ-CD, using hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as a crosslinking agent. In batch adsorption tests, the CD polymers achieved 45 to 77% removal of volatile phenols. (Dang et al. 2020)
References:
Dang, C.; Jiranek, V.; Taylor, D.K.; Wilkinson, K.L. (2020) Removal of Volatile Phenols From Wine Using Crosslinked Cyclodextrin Polymers. Molecules 25, 910. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25040910
Fliszár-Nyúl, E., Zinia Zaukuu, J.-L., Szente, L., Kovacs, Z., Poór, & M. (2023.) Impacts of β-cyclodextrin bead polymer (BBP) treatment on the quality of red and white wines: Color, polyphenol content, and electronic tongue analysis. LWT – Food Science and Technology 176, 114567, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2023.114567
Lagoutari, E., Liouni, M., Detsi, A., Zoumpoulakis, P.,Proestos, C. (2024) Incorporating Vitamins and Resveratrol into Wines and Tsipouro to Enhance their Antioxidant Capacity. Letters in Applied NanoBioScience 13(4), 184. https://nanobioletters.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/LIANBS134.184.pdf
Liu, C., Wu, L., Fan, S., Tao, Y., Li, Y. (2024) The protective effect of cyclodextrin on the color quality and stability of Cabernet Sauvignon red wine. Journal of Integrative Agriculture 23, 310-323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2023.10.034