Introduction
Resveratrol (5-[(E)-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethenyl]benzene-1,3-diol; Fig. 1) is a naturally occurring plant polyphenol that is present in grapes, berries, peanuts, and other foodstuffs. Resveratrol is thought to act as a phytoalexin, protecting plants against pathogens. Since the suggestion in the early 1990s that the apparent cardioprotective effects of red wine (“the French Paradox”) may be mediated by resveratrol, the compound has been studied for a variety of beneficial health effects [4]. In 1997, Jang et al. [17] reported that resveratrol has a number of biological activities that are consistent with cancer chemoprevention and that the agent can inhibit carcinogenesis in experimental animals. Since then, a broad range of desirable health effects have been ascribed to resveratrol; these include anti-cancer, anti-aging, anti-Alzheimer’s, anti-diabetic, anti-viral, neuroprotective, and cardioprotective activities [2–5, 7, 11, 15, 20, 26, 30–35, 37].