AN OVERVIEW OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF WINE ON HUMAN HEALTH, WITH SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF THE WINE-DERIVED PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS

Following an ever-increasing tendency to underline the detrimental effects of alcoholic beverages on human health, wine consumption has also recorded a steady decrease. This is despite multiple beneficial effects on health demonstrated by research.

This review presents the latest information regarding the effects of wine on human health. While the potential detrimental effect of alcohol is not disregarded, but acknowledged where science clearly demonstrated a negative impact, potential beneficial effects are also presented and discussed.

Aside from alcohol, wine contains other compounds which have been shown to serve as antioxidants and anti-blood clotting agents or metabolic signaling molecules, with anti-proliferative, chemoprotective, immunomodulating actions.

Accordingly, light to moderate but not heavy wine consumption can complement other dietary effects on human health. Recent research suggests that wine-derived compounds belonging to the phenolic compound classes are important to human health and some of their putative actions are presented in this review.