New approaches for screening grape seed peptides as colourimetric modulators by malvidin-3-O-glucoside stabilisation.

The colour of red wine is due to the presence of anthocyanins and their derived pigments, with malvidin-3-O-glucoside being the most predominant. Due to their chemical conformation, anthocyanins are susceptible to several conditions and have limited stability. Through copigmentation processes, anthocyanins can interact non-covalently with other molecules to enhance their stability. As a natural source of proteins and peptides, grape seeds are of particular interest because they may be of significant techno-functional value in the modulation of wine quality characteristics, such as acting as copigments to enhance colour stability. The proposed methodology allowed predicting in-depth insights into the molecular-level nature of interaction between the identified peptides when complexed with malvidin 3-O-glucoside and their colour stabilising properties. Thereby, allowing a prior screening in silico to facilitate their future application in experimental assays, such as obtaining the tested peptides with the characteristics already studied by means of grape seed meal directed hydrolysis.