Wine, Tannins, and Gut Health

Dear colleagues,

In this week’s article, we will discuss a component of one of the most widely consumed beverages at Christmas: wine.

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

Tannins are phenolic, non-nitrogenous, water-soluble molecules that, in addition to giving wine its distinctive flavor characteristics, are also responsible for its antioxidant properties, as they are direct precursors of gallic acid, a powerful metabolic antioxidant.

Tannins also have certain anti-nutritional properties, as they can sequester various nutrients, although this effect may also be of interest to us in combating various microbial pathologies that affect the intestinal health of animals. Specifically, we could try to sequester certain metal ions necessary for the replication of various 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 feed too much, so at NBG we recommend working with encapsulated tannins using technologies such as our NBG Protect matrix encapsulation system.

We also recommend combining tannins with other molecules that have synergistic effects, such as curcumin or yeast extracts, to holistically improve the intestinal health of animals.

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Finally, we provide you with an article that shows the effect of chestnut extract, rich in hydrolyzable tannins, on the intestinal health of piglets infected with a strain of E. coli F4.
Enjoy the article!