Pretreatment methods affecting the color, flavor, bioactive compounds, and antioxidant activity of jujube wine

Abstract In the case of wine production, the selection of optimal pretreatment methods and starter cultures are the 2 key points before fermentation. In this research, the fresh jujube was separately underwent alcoholic fermentation at 20°C with 3 different pretreatment methods (with peel, without peel, and juice) and 5 different starter cultures, respectively. Color analysis, electronic sense analysis, bioactive compound analysis, and antioxidant activity analysis combined with multivariate statistical analysis were applied to evaluated the effects of pretreatment methods and starter cultures on the overall quality of jujube wine. It was found that both pretreatment methods and starter cultures have effects on the quality of jujube wines, in which pretreatment methods have much more significant effects. The jujube wines fermented with different pretreatment methods were classified clearly by their overall quality, and that of the jujube wines fermented with peel was the best among all, since it can not only enhance the color and flavor quality of the wine, but also maximize the preservation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of jujube for better consumer acceptance. This will provide a theoretical reference and application basis for the quality improvement of jujube wine.