Recent studies on resveratrol and its biological and pharmacological activity.



Dear Editor,

Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) is a stilbenoid and polyphenolic compound. It is found naturally, especially in plants sources such as peanuts, grapes, and some berries (Diaz-Gerevini et al., 2016[9]). In plants, resveratrol is produced via the phenylpropanoid pathway. It is derived from p-coumaric acid, which is an intermediate formed during lignin production. The 4-coumarate:coenzyme A (CoA) ligase converts p-coumaric acid to coumaroyl-CoA, along with three units of malonyl-CoA, which are then condensed to form resveratrol by resveratrol synthase or stilbene synthase (Deng et al., 2016[8]; Zhang et al., 2015[55]; Zheng et al., 2015[57]; Kim et al., 2013[21]).

Resveratrol is the most widely studied plant-derived polyphenol. Several studies have been reported on its numerous biological and pharmacological effects. These include neuroprotective (Su et al., 2016[45]), antiobesity (Chang et al., 2016[5]), antiviral (Abba et al., 2015[1]), hepatoprotective (Faghihzadeh et al., 2015[11]), anti-inflammatory (Liu et al., 2015[27]), cardioprotective (Raj et al., 2015[40]), anticancer (Kumar et al., 2015[22]), anti-atherogenic (Riccioni et al., 2015[41]), antidiabetic (Szkudelski and Szkudelska, 2015[46]), and antioxidant (Yun et al., 2014[53]) activities. Resveratrol shows a wide range of biological activities and health benefits in humans, which makes it a beneficial substance for use in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. We present a review of the most recent studies on the benefits of resveratrol, especially its biological and pharmacological activities (Table 1(Tab. 1)). (References in Table 1: Zhai et al., 2016[54]; Hyatt et al., 2016[14]; Tsang et al., 2016[49]; Rai et al., 2016[39]; Li et al., 2016[25]; Jin et al., 2016[18]; Abdel-Wahab et al., 2016[2]; Kim et al., 2016[20]; Su et al., 2016[45]; Lai et al., 2016[23]; Hu et al., 2016[13]; Monserrat Hernández-Hernández et al., 2016[32]; Natalin et al., 2016[33]; Chang et al., 2016[5]; Polley et al., 2016[37]; Bedada et al., 2016[4]; Shah et al., 2016[43]; Khazaei et al., 2016[19]; Li et al., 2016[26]; Das et al., 2015[7]; Wang et al., 2015[50]; Meng et al., 2015[31]; Tan et al., 2016[47]; Sin et al., 2015[44]; Ishikawa et al., 2015[15]; Lu and Wang, 2015[28]; Ji et al., 2015[17]; Rabassa et al., 2015[38]; Pektaş et al., 2015[35]; Jang et al., 2015[16]; Meftahi et al., 2015[30]; Dong et al., 2015[10]; Pereira et al., 2015[36]; Schroeter et al., 2015[42]; Lee et al., 2015[24]; Yaylali et al., 2015[52]; Arslan et al., 2015[3]; Trung et al., 2015[48]; Ortega and Duleba, 2015[34]; Riccioni et al., 2015[41]; Mastromarino et al., 2015[29]; Yao et al., 2015[51]; Cigremis et al., 2015[6]; Zhao et al., 2015[56]; Ge et al., 2015[12].)

Table 1

The biological and pharmacological properties of resveratrol reported by recent studies

Notes

Jae Kwang Kim and Sang Un Park (Division of Life Sciences and Convergence Research Center for Insect Vectors, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Korea; Phone: +82-42-821-5730, E-mail: supark@cnu.ac.kr) contributed equally as corresponding authors.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Research Center Support Program, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.