PHYSICOCHEMICAL, ANTIOXIDANT AND MINERAL ANALYSES OF SELECTED WINES, HERBAL DRINKS AND SPIRIT BEVERAGES COMMONLY SOLD IN AKURE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Four different wine products (Baron romero, RUBY, De-Richardson and Lordmayor), two herbal bitter samples (OSOMO bitter and Orijin Bitter) and four gin products (Eagles Aromatic Schnapps, Davana gin, Regal gin and local distilled gin “ogogoro”) were subjected to physicochemical, phytochemical and mineral analyses. The Phytochemical analysis of the samples showed that Total Phenolic content is more abundant in the wine samples (24.76-71.17 mg/L GAC), and significantly lower in the spirit samples (2.13-3.18 mg/L GAC). The Antioxidant properties also showed that the wine samples had highest concentration of DPPH scavenging ability within the range (24.42-78.41%) and was observed to be lower in the spirit samples within the range (2.01-22.07%). The mean vitamin C contents of wine samples were higher than those of herbal bitters and gin samples. The concentration of Sulphur dioxide (SO2) used as preservative was observed to be below the legal permissible limit of 250 ppm in the samples. The result showed that the concentration of SO2 varied in range (3.86-13.22 ppm) for the spirit samples, and (14.08-110.08 ppm) for the wine samples. The total acidity was observed to be higher in the wine samples as compared with the spirit and herbal samples. The percentage alcohol in the samples ranged from 0% (V/V) for (Lordmayor and De-Richardson) to 46.3% V/V (Local distilled gin “ogogoro”). The concentrations of nine metals (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu and Cd) were also determined in the ten samples by Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) after the sample digestion. Among the macro minerals, calcium (354 – 857.6 mg/L) was found to be at the highest level, followed by potassium (13.21–142.13 mg/L), sodium (9.50–106 mg/L) and magnesium (0.01–5.36 mg/L). From the micro-minerals, the concentration of iron ranged from (0.01 to 1.20 mg/L), copper (0.01 to 0.32 mg/L) and zinc from 0.01 to 0.14 mg/L, while cadmium and nickel were below detection limit of the analytical procedure used in this study (<0.01 mg/L). The levels of metals in the samples were found to be comparable with products of some other countries