Just when everyone thought that acai berries were the latest craze, along came resveratrol. I’m already starting to see the same free trial type offers for resveratrol that took place with acai berries. Technically, it’s an antibiotic created by plants to fight bacteria and fungi, but can also be synthetically created. It can be found naturally in the skins of grapes (in small quantities), raspberries, mulberries, blueberries and cranberries, peanuts, some pine trees and in Japanese knotweed. It is now sold as a nutritional supplement derived from Japanese knotweed since this is a cheap way to extract the substance.
Some studies have shown that resveratrol has high antioxidant levels, has high anti-inflammatory qualities, may extend tolerance to exercise, and can reduce memory loss. In other studies, it extended the life of fruit flies, nematode worms, and certain short living fish, but not mice. It has also been shown that topical resveratrol has anti-cancer properties in mice treated with a carcinogen, but I don’t believe there have been human tests yet. Resveratrol is currently being sold in capsule or juice form.
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is actually developing resveratrol based diabetes drugs, so there’s got to be some legitimacy to the health claims of resveratrol. Just like with acai, more human studies need to be done to test this health claims of this new superfood.