LAUSR

BACKGROUND The well-characterization of grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera) is crucial for the grape growers, winemakers, wine sellers, consumers and authorities owing that mistakes could involve significant damage in the wine economic system. To avoid any misunderstanding, morphological, molecular and chemical tools are developed to firmly identify grape varieties. RESULTS E-ε-viniferin is a stilbene dimer mainly present in the woody part of grapevine and present as a mixture of two enantiomers (7aR, 8aR)-(-)-E-ε-viniferin (1) and (7aS, 8aS)-(+)-E-ε-viniferin (2). In addition to phenotypic and genotypic approaches, a chemotaxonomic method using E-ε-viniferin enantiomers as chemical markers of grapevine cultivars was investigated. The isolation and purification of E-ε-viniferin enantiomers by preparative HPLC and chiral HPLC from fourteen red and eight white grapevine cane cultivars allowed to determine the proportion of each enantiomers, therefore to calculate the enantiomeric excess for each varieties. The relative abundance of each E-ε-viniferin enantiomers permitted to distinguish grape varieties, as well as establish cultivars relationships and pattern through statistical analysis. CONCLUSION This pioneering work highlighting the enantiomeric excess of E-ε-viniferin as a chemical marker of grapevine paves the way for further studies to understand what mechanisms are involved in the production of these enantiomers in grapevine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.