A non- climatic fruit and botanically addressed as a true berry, grapes are perennial and deciduous vines, primarily woody in nature. Myriad species of grapes are cultivated which are found in hues of yellow, green, dark blue, crimson and white. The ‘white' ones are the evolutionary derivates of the red grapes. The colors of these fruits are mainly due to the presence of anthocyanins and other pigment chemicals belonging to the family of polyphenols.

Nutritional Analysis :

Grapes rank high in mineral content ranging from calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, zinc, sodium to phosphorous. Grapes also contain high quantities of the vitamins Thiamine, Folate, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Vitamin B6,B12, C and K.

Health Benefits :

The phytochemicals present in grapes such as resveratrol have been shown to fight degenerative nerve diseases, heart ailments, viral infections, Alzheimer's disease and even cancer. Resveratrol has been observed to bear considerable transcriptional overlap which further aids in calorie restriction in the heart, skeletal muscle and brain. It also serves antifungal and myriad defensive properties. Clinical trials have found dietary resveratrol to regulate the metabolism of lipids and to inhibits the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins and aggregation of platelets. Commercial grape juice shows beneficial effects by lowering risk factors like atherosclerosis, loss of physical performance, mental acuity that comes with aging and hypertension in humans.

Preparations :

Grapes can either be eaten raw or converted into juice, jelly, jam, drugs, vinegar, grape seed extracts , raisins and grape seed oil.

References :

Walker AR, Lee E, Bogs J, McDavid DA, Thomas MR, Robinson SP, AR (Mar 2007). "White grapes arose through the mutation of two similar and adjacent regulatory genes". Plant J 49 (5): 772–85. doi :10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02997.x+ (inactive 2009-09-06). ISSN 0960-7412 . PMID 17316172 .

Waterhouse AL, AL (May 2002). "Wine phenolics" . Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 957 : 21–36. doi : 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb02903.x . ISSN 0077-8923 . PMID 12074959 .

Gatz SA, Wiesmüller L, SA (February 2008). "Take a break—resveratrol in action on DNA" (Free full text). Carcinogenesis 29 (2): 321–32. doi : 10.1093/carcin/bgm276 . ISSN 0143-3334 . PMID 18174251 .

Barger JL, Kayo T, Vann JM, et al. , JL (Jun 2008). "A low dose of dietary resveratrol partially mimics caloric restriction and retards aging parameters in mice" (Free full text). PLoS ONE 3 (6): e2264.

doi : 10.1371/journal.pone.0002264 . PMID 18523577 . PMC 2386967 . Listing of resveratrol clinical trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the US National Institutes of Health [2]