Wine, Tannins, and Intestinal health

Dear colleagues,

In this week’s article we will talk about a component of one of the most consumed drinks at Christmas, wine.

Wine, especially red wine, is a product that can contain high levels of tannins, molecules that give a bitter and dry taste to wine and that come from the skin and seeds of the grape or from the barrels where the wine is produced.

Tannins are phenolic molecules, non-nitrogenous and water-soluble, which in addition to giving a very peculiar flavor characteristics to wine are also responsible for the antioxidant properties of wine, since for example they are direct precursors of gallic acid, a potent metabolic antioxidant.

Tannins also have a certain anti-nutritional capacity, as they can be sequestrants of several nutrients, although we may also be interested in this effect to combat several microbial pathologies that affect the intestinal health of animals. In particular, we could try to bind certain metal ions necessary for the replication of several types of pathogenic bacteria. The problem with this potential use is that the amount of tannins we would need could negatively affect the palatability of the diet, as well as increase the cost of the feed too much, so from NBG we recommend working with encapsulated tannins with technologies such as our NBG Protect matrix encapsulation system.

We also recommend combining tannins with other molecules with which they have synergy such as curcumin or yeast extracts, to improve the intestinal health of animals in a holistic way.

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Finally, we provide you with an article showing the effect of chestnut extract, rich in hydrolysable tannins, on the intestinal health of piglets infected with a strain of E.coli F4.

Enjoy the article!