Synergism Among Flavonoids in Inhibiting Platelet Aggregation and H 2 O 2 Production

To the Editor:In vitro and in vivo studies carried out by Freedman et1 demonstrated that purple grape juice inhibits platelet aggregation and production of superoxide anion and increases the platelet formation of nitric oxide. These findings are of potential relevance for explaining the cardioprotective effect of grape juice and red wine. The authors sought also to investigate the mechanism by which grape juice inhibits platelet function and observed a consistent difference in terms of platelet inhibition among the 5 fractions of grape twice containing flavonoids. We agree with the authors that flavonoids, which are constituent of both red wine and grape juice, contribute to inhibiting platelet activity, but there are some issues that merit consideration.The …