Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

Food poisoning is all too common.  Undercooked poultry is a major cause.  While there are ~250 foodborne illnesses, campylobacter jenuni is among the top five largely because poultry is consumed by most of the population.

Symptoms start 2-5 days following ingestion of campylobacter.  The Centers for Disease Control estimates 1.5 million people in the U.S. become ill from Campylobacter infection every year.  Common symptoms are diarrhea (often bloody), fever, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and fever, which usually last a week.

Campylobacter infections may produce long-term issues such as arthritis, irritable bowel and even Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Antibiotic treatment is usually effective in eradicating this infectious disease but there is antibiotic resistance.  For that reason, there is a search for adjunctive or alternative therapies.

Resveratrol is a widely studied and underutilized natural molecule extracted from grapes or Giant Knotweed and concentrated by fermentation in wine.  Resveratrol is commonly referred to as an anti-aging molecule and an important component in wine that is responsible for the French paradox, the fact the French with higher cholesterol levels experience compared to North Americans have a far lower rate of coronary artery disease attributed to their consumption of red wine.

In the animal lab, mice were infected with Campylobacter jejuni bacteria and two days later, during the incubation period, resveratrol was administered to these animals in drinking water and compared with an inactive placebo (as if animals really develop infection by mental suggestion).

Given that mice are 10,000 times more resistant to bacterial toxins compared to humans, these mice were pre-treated with antibiotics and their protective gut bacteria was abolished to intentionally worsen the infection.

Placebo-treated mice developed bloody diarrhea, which was far less pronounced in resveratrol-treated animals.  Resveratrol “dampened” immune cell responses in the large intestine which calmed inflammation (for all the scientists reading this report, by reduction of tumor necrosis factor-TNF, an inflammatory protein) and rescued the barrier cells (colonic epithelial cell layer) that protect the lining of the gut.

Researchers noted that resveratrol was “strikingly” found in tissues beyond the intestines like the kidneys and liver six days after initial infection.

Many antibiotics induce oxidative stress in target bacteria by production of toxic oxygen species that cause oxidative damage to DNA, subsequently leading to cell death.

Resveratrol’s effectiveness was not due to enhancement of antibiotics but rather its ability to normalize the immune response.

Resveratrol also inhibited adhesion of bacteria and the creation of biofilms in the digestive tract.

Researchers concluded: “Further studies either with resveratrol alone or in combination with other polyphenolic and/or non-polyphenolic compounds need to be performed in the future.” [Microorganisms, Volume 8, issue 12, page 1858, 2020]

Foodborne infections strike over 2 billion times a year in human populations with an estimated 1 million deaths.  Salmonella is the most prominent of these foodborne infections.

Resveratrol is not limited to quelling Campylobacter. In various concentration resveratrol has been demonstrated to exhibit antibacterial activity against well-known bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, and Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, Vibrio cholera, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Arcobacter butzleri, and Arcobacter cryaerophilu. 

Researchers conclude resveratrol exhibits promising antibacterial activities against important foodborne bacteria. Investigators claim resveratrol can also serve as a food preservative. [Frontiers Pharmacology Volume 9, page 102, 2018]