Mass Spectrometry Workshop: Quantitative analysis of resveratrol in wine by LC-UV-MS

The goal of this monthly workshop is to provide a medium for discussion for our faculty and students and allow them to be exposed to new and exciting research in the field of mass spectrometry with a focus on food/nutrition/environment and agriculture. Held once a month from 12-1 pm on a Wednesday, we hope this will be an enlightening hour for all those who participate. 

Open to everyone! Anyone interested in learning more about Mass Spectrometry and its applications will obtain a great deal from these monthly workshops.

Quantitative analysis of resveratrol in wine by LC-UV-MS

Speaker: Dr. Alexander Wahba, Department of Chemistry, McGill University

Red wine consumption has been publicized to possess health benefits such as a reduction of the risk of heart disease and protection from cancer. Scientists hypothesize that polyphenols in red wine rid the body of harmful free radicals and play a part in its protective role. One study showed drinking at least four glasses of red wine a week was associated with a 50% lower risk of prostate cancer in men. So, does drinking any red wine offer these types of health benefits? There is some debate in the scientific community if one specific antioxidant, trans-resveratrol, is the likely compound that offers these health benefits. If we are led to believe this is indeed the case, the health benefit of a given red wine should therefore depend on the levels of trans-resveratrol. Unfortunately, wineries do not typically indicate the content of resveratrol in wine which further complicates the matter. We therefore developed a quantitative HPLC-DAD-MS method to measure the levels of resveratrol in wine. Our goal was to determine which types of wine have a higher content of resveratrol. This presentation will discuss how we developed our method and the levels of resveratrol determined in local wines.

For more information: nausheen.sadiq [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Nausheen Sadiq); anca.baesu [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Anca Baesu); stephane.bayen [at] mcgill.ca (Professor Stephane Bayen)