The purpose of this work was to determine the kaempferol content in three red wines of Calabria, a southern Italian region with a great number of certified food products. Considering that wine cultivar, climate, and soil influence the qualitative and quantitative composition in flavonoids of Vitis vinifera L. berries, the three analyzed samples were taken from the 2013 vintage. Moreover, the Gaglioppo samples, with assigned Controlled Origin Denomination (DOC), were also investigated in the production of years 2008, 2010, and 2011. In addition to the analysis of kaempferol, which is present in higher concentration than in other Italian wines, in vitro assays were performed to evaluate, for the first time, the inhibition of the human monoamine oxidases (hMAO-A and hMAO-B). Molecular recognition studies were also carried out to provide insight into the binding mode of kaempferol and selectivity of inhibition of the hMAO-A isoform.
Keywords: computational chemistry; flavonoids; inhibition; monoamine oxidase; red wine.