Grape skins and wine contain an active natural product called resveratrol that may be good for hearts and help prevent cancer.

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo College of Pharmacy Dean and Pharmaceutical Biology Editor John Pezzuto devotes the July 2008 issue to an extensive review of promising results in animal, in vitro and cell culture studies.

Writing in the Aug. 27, 2008 Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry, Pezzuto points to additional, preliminary data suggesting that even low concentrations of resveratrol, as well as whole grapes, may provide benefits against Alzheimer’s disease and urinary bladder dysfunction.

Several small-scale human trials are under way and human intervention trials must follow before resveratrol could be recommended as a treatment, he stresses, but in the mean time, it can’t hurt to eat your grapes.

Tags: College of Pharmacy, UH Hilo