Abstract
Fruit wines contain a wide range of phenolic compounds with biological effects, but their composition and potential benefits to human health have been studied to the much lesser extent compared to grape wines. The aim of this research is to study the phenolic profile of different types of fruit wines and to evaluate their antioxidant and biological potential. Commercially available fruit wines from blackberry, cherry, raspberry, blackcurrant, strawberry and apple produced in Croatia were analyzed. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first comprehensive screening of Croatian fruit wines. The phenolic characterization was performed by spectrophotometry and HPLC-PDA/MS analysis. The antioxidant capacity was determined using ABTS and FRAP assays, while in vitro biological activity was analyzed by the cytotoxicity assay on human breast (MCF-7), colon (CaCo-2) and cervical (HeLa) cancer cell lines. Among the studied fruit wines, blackberry, cherry and blackcurrant wines contained the highest amount of total phenolics, while the last two also contained the highest amount of total anthocyanins. The analysis of individual phenolic compounds showed distinctive phenolic composition of each type of fruit wine, notably as regards anthocyanins. Blackberry, followed by cherry, raspberry and blackcurrant wines also had a significantly higher antioxidant capacity than strawberry and apple wines. Fruit wines inhibited the growth of human cancer cells in vitro in a dose--dependent manner with differing susceptibility among tested cancer cells. Blackberry, cherry, raspberry and blackcurrant wines in the volume ratio of 10 and 20% showed to be the most effective anti-proliferative agents, with higher susceptibility in HeLa and MCF-7 cells than CaCo-2 cells.