Resveratrol is a plant compound (a polyphenol) found in grape skins, red wine, peanuts and Japanese knotweed. As a supplement it is marketed for healthy aging and heart health, and it has been studied in people for blood sugar and cholesterol, mostly in small trials.
Also known as: trans-resveratrol, Japanese knotweed extract.
Resveratrol has no intake value or upper limit, and there is no NIH fact sheet for it. In a safety study (Brown 2010), 40 healthy volunteers took 0.5, 1, 2.5 or 5 g a day for 29 days; a pharmacokinetic study (Walle 2004) used a single 25 mg dose. These are study protocols, not a recommendation.
It is sold in the US as a dietary supplement. Under the 1994 dietary supplement law (DSHEA), FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and the maker, not FDA, is responsible for safety and labeling. There is no FDA-approved resveratrol drug.
A 2022 meta-analysis (Delpino) of randomized trials found resveratrol lowered insulin resistance and HbA1c, and lowered fasting blood sugar only in people with diabetes; the results varied a lot between studies. If you take metformin, insulin or another diabetes medicine, tell your prescriber.
Absorption is the catch. In 6 volunteers (Walle 2004), at least 70% of an oral dose was absorbed, but the gut and liver converted it so fast that only trace amounts of unchanged resveratrol reached the blood; most of what circulated were sulfate and glucuronide forms. In the 29-day safety study (Brown 2010), resveratrol was described as safe, but 2.5 and 5 g a day caused mild to moderate stomach and bowel symptoms.
In 6 volunteers given 25 mg by mouth (Walle 2004), resveratrol plus its breakdown products had a plasma half-life of about 9.2 hours, but almost none of it was unchanged resveratrol. Because that figure describes the metabolites, not resveratrol itself, we do not list it as a half-life.
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