Science Spark : Health Benefits of Wine: Don’t Expect Resveratrol Too Much

The resveratrol is a polyphenol found in wine, and is mainly known to be at origin of the French Paradox (ie  improved cardiovascular outcomes despite a high-fat diet in French people, ie the reason why French people, although they eat good and drink wine are healthier).  Many scientific studies have focused on the way resveratrol could act, or how terroir, fermentation or other wine making practice could influence its content in wine.

However, a recent study published in Food Chemistry made an interesting test : Xiang et al have extracted  several polyphenols from red wine to apply them on a cell and test their antioxidant activity. Results :

• There was no significant difference between the prime red wine and the red wine adding 10 fold resveratrol on neuroprotective effects on SH-SY5Y cell line.

•  The contribution percentage of resveratrol to the antioxidant activity of red wine was less than other tested polyphenols. 

They then conclude that "resveratrol may be negligible with respect to healthy benefits of red wine.".

Limin Xiang, Lingyun Xiao, Yihai Wang, Haifeng Li, Zebo Huang, Xiangjiu He

Health Benefits of Wine: Don’t Expect Resveratrol Too Much

Food Chemistry, Available online 17 January 2014

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.01.006

 To learn more about Resveratrol :
 Significance of wine and resveratrol in cardiovascular disease: French paradox revisited., idavalur R, Otani H, Singal PK, Maulik N. Exp Clin Cardiol. 2006 Fall; 11(3):217-25; 

Bianchini, F., and H. Vainio. "Wine and resveratrol: mechanisms of cancer prevention?." European journal of cancer prevention 12.5 (2003): 417-425.