LOCALIZATION OF PROCYANIDINS IN GRAPE SEEDS

Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were harvested at maturity fr om University of California vineyards in Davis and Oakville. Seeds wer e collected from representative berry samples, separated, and cleaned. The soft outer seed coat was then manually scraped from the seeds, co llected, weighed, and extracted in aqueous alcohol. Next, the endosper m of the seeds was removed, collected, weighed, and extracted as above . In addition, whole seeds extracts were prepared from each cultivar. All extracts were analyzed for monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols us ing HPLC. For each cultivar, the outer seed coat contained the majorit y of both the monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols (2 to 5 times more than the endosperm), with the exception of epicatechin in Cabernet Sau vignon. The tissue and seed analyses independently showed that Pinot n oir seeds contained more flavan-3-ols than did Cabernet Sauvignon seed s.