Vitis vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract*

Red Grape extract, rich in Polyphenols, is not only used in the cosmetics for its anti-ageing and anti-puffiness properties but also due to its nutrients can hydrate and replenish the skin and offer protective properties against the environment and pollution.

The Fruit

A grape is the non-climacteric fruit that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine and grape seed oil.

Compounds such as resveratrol (a polyphenol antioxidant) have been discovered in grapes and these have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease and other ailments. Resveratrol is found in wide amounts among grape varieties, primarily in their skins and seeds which, in muscadine grapes, have about one hundred times higher concentration than pulp.

Anthocyanins tend to be the main polyphenolics in red grapes whereas flavan-3-ols (e.g., catechins) are the more abundant phenolic in white varieties. Total phenolic content, an index of dietary antioxidant strength, is higher in red varieties due almost entirely to anthocyanin density in red grape skin compared to absence of anthocyanins in white grape skin.

Since the 1980s, biochemical and medical studies have demonstrated powerful antioxidant properties of grape seed oligomeric proanthocyanidins. Together with tannins, polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, these seed constituents display inhibitory activities against several experimental disease models, including cancer, heart failure and other disorders of oxidative stress. Grape seed oil from crushed seeds is used for many perceived health benefits.