Effect of maturation conditions on sensory and antioxidant properties of old Serbian plum brandies

Šljivovica and Prepečenica are traditional Serbian distillated beverages made from varieties of plum, of the genus Prunus. The ageing in wooden casks not only improves the sensory characteristics, but also changes the content of total polyphenols and contributes to the other important health properties, such as the increase of their antioxidant capacity. In this study, home-made brandy ( Šljivovica and Prepečenica ) samples were used, which matured in casks during the time period from 10 to 47 years. The aim of this investigation was to examine the influence of the ageing parameters (time period and type of wooden casks) and raw material (plum cultivars) on the total polyphenol content, amount of certain phenol compounds, sensory properties, colour and antioxidant properties in matured brandies. The individual phenol components were determinated using HPLC system equipped with diode array detector, while the total phenol content and antioxidant activity was estimated using spectrophotometric methods (Folin–Ciocalteu, DPPH, FRAP and TEAC). Total polyphenol content (TPC) of aged Prepečenica samples was ranged from 230.26 to 890.26 mg/L gallic acid equivalents (GAE mg/L), whereas the TPC of Šljivovica sample was 110.38 mg/L. Antioxidant capacity of analysed Prepečenica samples and Šljivovica sample was in strong correlation with TPC. Total sensory score of all samples was very high and varied between 18.2 and 19.8. The obtained results have shown that the benefit of longer maturation on sensory characteristics is well recognized, but the improvement has some limitation.