Data concerning the decay of residues of 32 active ingredients in musts and
wines were used to develop an analysis aimed at elaborating: a) the mathem
atical equations which best represent the disappearance of each active ingr
edient during the wine-making process and during storage; b) the general eq
uations that represent the disappearance of the pesticides. The study consi
sted in gathering a body of data from the existing literature which was pro
cessed by: 1 dividing the wine-making process into five conventional phases
; 2 standardizing and processing the data for each active ingredient at eac
h phase; 3 analyzing the disappearance curve for each active ingredient; 4
developing overall curves to indicate the disappearance of the pesticides d
uring wine-making and during storage. Two general equations were extrapolat
ed that allow simulation of the behavior of those active ingredients for wh
ich no experimental data is available.