Introduction:

Resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes and in other fruits. However, red wine contains very little of it, in the order of one milligram per glass. Resveratrol has also been produced by chemical synthesis and by biotechnological synthesis (metabolic engineered microorganisms)  and is sold as a nutritional supplement derived primarily from Polygonum cuspidatum.

A further study by a group of scientists, which included Sinclair, indicated resveratrol treatment had a range of beneficial effects in elderly mice, but did not increase the longevity of ad libitum–fed mice when started midlife. Later, the National Institute on Aging's Interventions Testing Program (ITP) also tested three different doses of resveratrol in mice on a normal diet beginning in young adulthood, and again found no effect on lifespan, even at doses roughly eight times higher than those that had normalized the lifespan of the high-fat-fed, obese mice in the earlier study.

2011 study published in Nature suggested that some of the benefits demonstrated in previous studies were overrepresented. However this study was immediately challenged , and few experiments were suggested to be of inferior quality

.