WINETECH Technical Yearbook 2019

MELATONIN IN WINE PROTECTS YOUR HEART

SANDRINE LECOUR: Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town KEYWORDS: Wine, health benefit, alcohol, resveratrol, melatonin. SEPTEMBER 2019

We discuss here how the presence of melatonin in wine may contribute to the cardioprotective health benefit of chronic and moderate consumption of wine. A BIT OF HISTORY Wine is the oldest documented human made med i c i ne , wi t h Sumerian’s tablets and papyri from Egypt (as old as 2 200 BC) describing medicinal recipes including the use of wine. Hippocrates recommended wine as an antiseptic, a diuretic and a sedat i ve . I n t he 19 t h Century, wine lover Louis Pasteur not only demonstrated that yeast was responsible for fermentation to produce alcohol from sugar, but he also praised the health benefit of wine quoting “wine is the most healthful and most

hygienic of all beverages”. Wine helped to eradicate the cholera in Hamburg in 1892. However, the use of wine as a medicine became neglected in the 1920s with the awareness of the harmful effect of excess alcohol consumption and the implementation of the prohibition in the United States (Norrie, 2005). One has to wait until 1992 for Dr. Serge Renaud to revive the interest of wine as a healthy beverage: Interviewed in the US news programme called “60 Minutes”, Renaud presented his latest research findings showing low cardiovascular mortality rate in the French population beside a high daily fat consumption (Renaud & De Lorgeril, 1992). He attributed this French paradox to the regular

and moderate consumption of wine, which is characteristic of the French population. Shortly after his mediatic intervention, the sales of red wine in the United States jumped by almost 45% and the American Food and Drug Administration dietary guidelines removed their statement that “wine has no health benefit ” to allow moderate consumption of wine with meals. EXPERIMENTAL LAYOUT AND RESULTS Numerous population studies have since confirmed the cardiovascular protective effect of chronic and moderate consumption of wine (2-3 glasses and 1-2 glasses of wine per day for men and women, respectively). However, the exact