Resveratrol: Molecular Mechanisms, Health Benefits, and Potential Adverse Effects

Ren ZQ, Zheng SY, Sun Z · MedComm

States the absorption paradox in the terms a reader needs. About 70 percent of a 25 mg oral dose is absorbed, yet serum levels of unmetabolised resveratrol stay very low because the gut and liver conjugate it by glucuronidation, sulfation and bacterial hydrogenation; resveratrol-3-O-sulfate is the most abundant plasma metabolite and stays detectable beyond ten hours. Plasma half-life runs 4 to 10 hours whatever the dose, and the review states that neither repeated administration nor dose escalation meaningfully raises bioavailability. The gap that matters for cell-culture findings is named directly: effective concentrations in vitro are micromolar, while human blood levels are nanomolar. On safety it puts moderate doses below 2 g/day as supported, notes that 1 g/day raised cardiovascular biomarkers in overweight adults aged 65 and over, and records that at 1 g/day and above resveratrol inhibits hepatic cytochrome P450, raising exposure to cisapride, cyclosporine, felodipine and midazolam among others.

Population

The resveratrol literature across degenerative musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, neurological and oncological disease, with a dedicated appraisal of bioavailability and adverse effects

Intervention

Oral resveratrol

Comparator

Not applicable; a narrative review

Limitations

A narrative review, not a systematic one: it selects rather than pools, and its safety statements are summaries of individual reports rather than pooled estimates. Its musculoskeletal sections rest largely on cell and animal work.