Notions of human food

Edible plants, like other plants, produce nutrients (proteins, lipids and carbohydrates) through photosynthesis, which they use for energy or growth. In addition, to adapt or defend themselves against their often unfavorable environment, plants produce numerous non-energy compounds called secondary metabolites (e.g. flavonoids, polyphenols), of which there are between 5,000 and 8,000. Depending on the case, these can protect against radiation, microbial infection, oxidative stress, water stress or chemical stress (pesticides), or, thanks to pigments and scent molecules, promote pollination or protect against predators. In humans and animals, these microconstituents often display similar bioactive properties, which are of interest for essential cellular or physiological functions (signaling, gene regulation, prevention of acquired or infectious pathologies, etc.) (Box A). Indeed, the unprecedented advances in biology over the last 50 years have taught us that the essential biochemical processes set up by sometimes primitive organisms have been selected in the course of evolution, and are generally conserved throughout the living kingdom. With the benefit of hindsight, we can verify this with the substance known as resveratrol, the flagship polyphenol of grapes and wine, which plays an essential role in plants as an elicitor of natural defenses and, very interestingly, proves to be a health protector in humans. In one case, it acts as an anti-infective against pathogenic micro-organisms such as Botritis cinerea. On the other, it can delay or even block the onset of major diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes and cancer. It was through the latter disease that our laboratory became involved in research into polyphenols from grapevines and wine, with reference to this property of conservation in biology. At the time, a leading paper in the journal Science showed that resveratrol was capable of preventing the development of chemically-induced cancers in mice (Jang et al., 1997). It was the start of a long saga that continues to this day.

For thousands of years, in every region of the world, no beverage (and not even a food preparation) has received as much attention from mankind as wine, at every stage of its development: cultivation of the vine, selection of varieties, phytosanitary treatments,...