Muscadine Resveratrol
Muscadines are a great source of the plant immunity chemical resveratrol. This natural substance is produced when plants fight off pathogens like fungi or bacteria. Scientists have isolated this chemical and made it available in supplements. The most common derivative comes from Japanese knotweed. The use of muscadines is related to their resveratrol content. Red wine has been noted in more than 500 clinical studies for positive health effects. Most of these effects are related to cancer reduction, immunity and anti-oxidants. The current theory is that resveratrol is the active ingredient in red wine.
Unfortunately other trials have shown that drinking large amounts of wines are not sufficient to achieve the blood concentrations necessary for life extension due to resveratrol. The quality of resveratrol is not significantly different between the muscadine and knotweed, but with muscadines the drinker gets some added anti-oxidants not present in knotweed. Please remember that all of the strongest anti-oxidants on Earth come from fruit and berries with purple skin.
Consequently red wine is awash in strong anti-oxidants. This situation is ideal for cancer prevention and flushing the body of toxic substances. Unknown to most people, the human body produces toxic oxygenic agents called superoxides. Superoxides are the primary poison produced by animal respiration. This is a substance that some scientists say helps us age and result in “natural death”. Hence the expression: “breathing is killing us”. Anti-oxidants grab and eliminate superoxides.
Powerful anti-oxidants can destroy many superoxide molecules and clean our systems of this poison. So there is not a one-to-one ratio in the cleaning reaction, a single anti-oxidant molecule and neutralize many superoxide molecules. Red wines enhance this affect by washing our systems with several different types of anti-oxidants in each swallow. These same benefits come with the muscadine version of resveratrol. This is made from the skin of the grape. This is a highly recommended form of resveratrol, but for many other reasons other than just resveratrol. Red wine comes from grapes and almost any purple berry packs a strong anti-oxidant punch.
