Experts say Bignay wine surely good for the heart

bignay

Bignay is an indigenous fruit to southeastern Asia and is common and widely distributed in open places and second-growth forests throughout the Philippines. This local fruit, which is rarely cultivated is nowhere grown on a large scale. The fruits are seldom utilized but may be eaten out of hand or made into jams and jelly or used in the preparation of various dishes as substitute for tomato or vinegar. The fruits are also now utilized for the production of excellent tropical fruit wines. Experts had discovered the benefits from drinking bignay wine. Read this article originally posted at mb.com.ph to know more about the bignay wine's hearty goodness.

MANILA, Philippines — Make no bones about it. Bignay wine is good for your heart.

This counsel comes not from an oenologist but from a dyed-in-the wool scientist from UP Los Baños commissioned by the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) to prove that local fruits can give French vintners a run for their money.

Dr. Erlinda Dizon from the Food Science Cluster of the UP College of Agriculture is working on ways to develop local fruits into commercially viable products and she has tapped bignay (Antidesma bunius L.) as a top candidate to battle cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz and other varietals.

Bignay is not a berry but comes from the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae) and is an ovoid-shaped fruit clustered together in a bunch. It is native to the Philippines and often grows in the mountains with a tropical climate.

Each bunch consists of 30-40 fruits that become colorful due to their uneven ripening. Some are pale yellowish-green, pale yellow, bright red and/or dark red, nearly black when ripe. Fruits are harvested from June to September.

Bignay wine phytochemicals and flavonoids, including catechin, proyanidins, B1 and B2.

A study suggests that the fruits of bignay possibly contain compounds with potential cytotoxic activity and methanolic properties.

Yet, the most interesting thing is that drinking bignay wine is said to reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease due to its antioxidant properties.

The alcohol content prevents the deposition of fats inside the arteries, reducing the incidence of atherosclerosis or arteriosclerotic vascular disease (or ASVD) which is a condition in which an artery wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as cholesterol.

It was also reported that it can reduce cancer cells.

Dr. Dizon also revealed that there are a lot of benefits from drinking bignay wine. She advised to drink red wine during meal times, just like the French, because it can aid in the digestion of food.

Other benefits from consuming wines, specifically, red wines, is that it can treat anorexia nervosa (loss of appetite). The alcohol in red wine can stimulate gastric juice secretion and, hence, can stimulate the appetite. It also works against food poisoning since alcohol can wipe out bacteria in the stomach thus, preventing their proliferation and possible gastroenteritis.

“There is a large volume of wine importation from other countries. Getting a share of the market for wines would help our farmers and the local food industries if we could just make our own wine using our home-grown fruits,” Dr. Dizon explained.

This idea was realized in 2008 through a project titled, “Technology Commercialization and Packaging of Wine from Selected Local Fruits” with funding support from BAR through its National Technology Commercialization Program (NTCP).

The project sought to showcase appropriately packaged and quality wine from selected fruits and, eventually, to expand the market for fruit wines.

With results from previous studies on wine-making, Dr. Dizon hoped to revalidate the processing parameters to produce quality wine from the laboratory scale to commercial scale production and also to improve the packaging of the products.

“We aimed to establish the quality assurance system like the HACCP, GMP, and SSOP for wine processing, evaluate the marketability and profitability of production system, and enhance the capability of the technology adopters,” she said.

“Way back in 1983, we had already screened almost all of the local fruits and looked at their potentials for wine-making. Majority of them were excellent and suitable for wine-making. In fact, some are way better compared to grapes in terms of flavor and aroma. Out of those 30 different fruits that we screened, bignay, duhat, and Carabao mango turned out to be excellent substrates for wine processing. Bignay and duhat represents red wine and mango, which is known worldwide for its sweet taste and good aroma, for the white wine,” she said.

mb.com.ph article authored by: Marvyn N. Benaning