Is Sulfite an Antiatherogenic Compound in Wine?

High intake of fats is strongly correlated with high mortality from coronary heart disease. The lack of this correlation not seen in certain regions of France has been attributed to wine consumption (1). Red wine contains phenolic substances. The antioxidant properties of these compounds may delay the onset of atherogenesis by reducing peroxidative reactions. Sodium sulfite is used as a preservative in foods and as an antioxidant in alcoholic beverages. Sulfite is present in finished wines in concentrations up to ∼6 mmol/L. We measured the concentration of plasma sulfite in four healthy volunteers (males; age range, 28–37 years) before and after they drank a glass of wine (200 mL of a 1997 Bordeaux red wine containing ∼320 mg/L sodium sulfite). Each volunteer fasted for 12 h before the study. Plasma sulfite was determined by a sensitive HPLC method described by Ji et al. (2). Basal concentrations of sulfite were 0.43–1.20 μmol/L (mean ± SD, 0.72 ± 0.05 μmol/L). There was a sharp increase in plasma sulfite that reached maximum concentrations (5.8–9.2 μmol/L) in each individual at 0.5–1.0 h after the consumption of wine (Fig. 1 ). Thereafter, sulfite concentrations gradually decreased, but were higher at 4 h than basal values (paired t-test, P <0.01).