Pyruvate reaction with malvidin-3-glucoside

Mechanism of reaction. The adduct of malvidin-3-glucoside with pyruvic acid, also known as vitisin A(Fig. 9A.3h), was firstly detected in fortified red wines (Bakker et al. 1997) and in a grape marc (Fulcrand et al. 1998) and further isolated and characterized by NMR (Bakker et al. 1997 Fulcrand et al. 1998). According to Fulcrand et al. (1998), the reaction between pyruvic acid and grape anthocyanins occurs through a series of steps similar to those previously described for the hydroxyphenyl-pyranoanthocyanins (Sect. 9A.2.4.1 Fig. 9A.3f). Later studies performed by NMR (Mateus et al. 2001b) and mass spectrometry (Asenstorfer et al. 2001 Hayasaka and Asenstorfer 2002) have confirmed the structure proposed by Fulcrand et al. (1998). This mechanism is extended to the condensation reaction between anthocyanins and other enolizable precursors found in wine (Benabdeljalil et al. 2000). 

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