I don’t know the time lapse shown on Carnicom’s website. My question is more basic and doesn’t require observing the spittle under a microscope. I simply would like to know how this resulting "gooey mass" is produced, in terms of chemical reaction. Even without peroxide, although yielding less, I can spit out what looks to me like wet chewing tobacco(for lack of a better description). What in red wine(merlot works best) reacts inside the mouth/saliva to produce sticky strands?

Oh, and for me personally, there is no time lapse. I rinse for a few minutes and spit. The macroscopic observation is the same as shown on Carnicom’s website.

@Darby: unconscious retention as the generating process….cute.

Here is something I found regarding antioxidants and redwine:

"only a small fraction of the antioxidants (12.2 ± 3.4 %) is precipitated when wine samples are shaken for a few minutes with non-stimulated human saliva (5:1, V:V). This last result implies that most of the polyphenols present in the red wine samples are able to surpass the barrier imposed by the saliva."

http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S07 … ci_arttext

"most polyphenols" means not all polyphenols "…are able to surpass the barrier imposed by saliva". So which polyphenols are responsible for the precipitation and formation that can be seen here:

http://www.carnicom.com/morgobs7.htm

Are there any biochemists that frequent this board?

Interactions between saliva and wine
From the table above we see that wine only contains about 0.1% tannins (also known as polyphenols). The sources of tannins found in red wine are the seeds, skin and stem of the grapes. When we drink red wine, the tannins react with proteins in our saliva to form water insoluble protein-tannin complexes. A precipitate is formed and as a result, the lubricating properties of the saliva are lost and our tongue feels rough and dry. In other words, we experience the astringency of the red wine.

http://khymos.org/wine.php

What i don’t get is this: The precipitate in the photo doesnt even look remotely close to the dark stringy mass I produce with or without the peroxide. So if tannin creates the precipitate shown in the link above we can rule it out. So far scientific?

Wow, not one comment? Is what i’m asking about here not discussed in human biology?

Harrison

Here is the claim that pectin produces longer chains through oxygenation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gDi1WG7rO0