If you鈥檙e toasting to a long life, opt for a glass of red from south-west France. Red wines from this region have the highest levels of procyanidins 鈥� the compounds in grape seeds we now know are responsible for making red wine good for your heart.
Roger Corder at Queen Mary鈥檚 School of Medicine in London and his colleagues used cultured endothelial cells from blood vessels to identify which component of red wine had the greatest effect on blood vessel dilation. Previous studies have shown that resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, extends the life of yeast, flies, worms and fish, but Corder found that its levels in red wine were so low that it had no effect on blood vessels at all.
Procyanidins, however, suppressed the synthesis of a peptide called endothelin-1 that constricts blood vessels. 鈥淲ith resveratrol you鈥檇 need to drink 1000 litres of red wine or so to have any chance of affecting longevity,鈥� says Corder. 鈥淏ut procyanidins are so potent that drinking just one glass a day would have an effect.鈥�
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The team also compared the procyanidin content of wines from different regions. Wines from south-west France and Sardinia had between two and four times as much procyanidins as other red wines. Corder says this is because traditional wine-making techniques are still in use there.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 444, p 566)
