A natural compound found in grapes, mulberries, peanuts, and other plants or food products, especially red wine, that may protect against cancer and cardiovascular disease by acting as an antioxidant, antimutagen, and anti-inflammatory.

Cardiovascular Effects

Many studies suggest that consuming alcohol (especially red wine) may reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD). Several studies have demonstrated that resveratrol is an effective antioxidant [7-10]. It inhibits lipid peroxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) [7,8], prevents the cytotoxicity of oxidized LDL [7], and protects cells against lipid peroxidation [7]. It is thought that because it contains highly hydrophilic and lipophilic properties, it can provide more effective protection than other well-known antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E [7]. On the other hand, it is less effective than the antioxidants quercetin and epicatechin found in red wine [2]. Reduced platelet aggregation has also been demonstrated in studies on resveratrol, further contributing to its prevention of atherosclerosis [2,9]. To date, most of the research on resveratrol's antioxidant and anti-platelet properties has been done in vitro (in an artificial environment using test-tube or tissue-culture preparations). Further studies in animals and humans are necessary to determine whether resveratrol supplementation makes sense.

Cancer-Related Effects

Resveratrol is being studied to see how it affects the initiation, promotion, and progression of cancer. With regard to tumor initiation, it has been shown to act as an antioxidant by inhibiting free radical formation, and as an anti-mutagen in rat models [4]. Resveratrol appears to decrease tumor promotion activity by inhibiting cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) [4,11,12], an enzyme that converts arachidonic acid to pro-inflammatory substances that stimulate tumor-cell growth [3]. Studies related to progression have found that resveratrol induced human promyelocytic leukemia cell differentiation [4] and inhibited ribonucleotide reductase, an enzyme needed for DNA synthesis in proliferating cells [12]. One appealing characteristic of resveratrol's anti-cancer potential is its minimal toxicity to blood-forming cells [11]. More studies using both cellular and animal models are needed before any such data would be applicable to human use.