Principal Component Analysis of Biologically Active Compounds in Hungarian Wines

 

 

Elemér Csomós1, Károly Héberger2 and Livia Simon-Sarkadi1

 

1Department of Biochemistry and Food Technology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1502 Budapest, P. O. Box 91, Hungary

2Institute of Chemistry, Chemical Research Center, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1525 Budapest, P. O. Box 17, Hungary

 

 

Biogenic amines, polyphenols and resveratrol were analysed quantitatively in 25 different Hungarian wines from the same winemaking region, harvest of 1998. Polyphenols were determined by a spectrophotometric method, whereas other substrates were analyzed using overpressured-layer chromatography (OPLC).

Principal component analyses (PCA) were performed on data matrices consisting of substrates (columns) and different sorts of wines (rows) from the region of Pécs (South Hungary).

It was found that four (unrotated) principal components account for more than 80 % of the total variance in the data. The plots of component loadings showed significant groupings for concentrations of biogenic amines (and polyphenols). Similarly the component scores grouped according to the different sorts of wines.

The loading plots reveal that there is no need to measure all the variables to achieve the same characterization. It is enough to measure one variable per group. Naturally, this conclusion is only valid within the limits of the present study; wines from other regions may behave differently.