And by polyphenols, they mean tannins? I suppose it could mean other things too since polyphenols are a group of chemicals, although they're hardly desirable considering that there are even finings agents focused on precipitating polyphenols...
I posted this in another thread yesterday:
From: "Effects of Protein-Polyphenol Interactions on Beverage Haze,
Stabilization, and Analysis" Siebert, K.J.
J. Agric. Food Chem., Vol. 47, 1999 353-362
"Protein-polyphenol interaction is important not just
in beverage haze. Dietary tannins (defined as water
soluble plant phenolic materials with molecular weight
>500 Daltons and the ability to precipitate
gelatin and other proteins from aqueous solution) have
an antinutritional effect (Mehansho et al., 1987; Baxter
et al., 1997). Tannins depress the growth rate of rodents
and chicks and decrease protein utilization in humans.
Hamsters are particularly sensitive to tannins, which
can be lethal to them in as little as 3 days."
So tannins aren't just polyphenols, they are large polyphenols.
From: "Polyphenols, Astringency and Proline-Rich Proteins
Luck, G. et. al. Phytochemistry 1994, 37, 357-371.
"Polyphenols (tannins) have a harsh astringent taste and
produce in the palate a feeling of roughness, dryness and
constriction [l]. According to Bate-Smith, and later
Swain and others [2,3] the primary reaction whereby
astringency develops is via precipitation of proteins and
mucopolysaccharides in the mucous secretions. Following
the classic experiments of Feeny [4,5] on the deleterious
effects of dietary tannins on the feeding of the larvae
of the winter moth (Operophtera brumatn) on oak the view
was formulated that tannins are uniquely a quantitative
defence. They repel predators by virtue of their strongly
astringent taste and because of their anti-nutritional
characteristics once ingested. Bate-Smith
[6] elegantly summarized their role in plant chemical
defence: From the biological point of view the importance
of tannins in plants lies in their effectiveness as
repellents to predators, whether animal or microbial. In
either case the relevant property is astringency rendering
the tissues unpalatable by precipitating proteins or by
immobilizing enzymes, impeding invasion of the host by
the parasite.
This paper also details the mode of binding of tannins to
proteins if you are interested.
Rayg