I guess everyone has seen TV adverts where a particular product contains a fancy sounding special chemical and the treatment it provides has been ‘clinically proven’ to work. One that caught my eye recently contains ‘the beauty molecule’. Is there really one molecule that can make everyone beautiful? This product containing ‘the beauty molecule’ is advertised and sold as a food supplement by Fountain. Both the website and the label on the bottle carefully do not make any outright claims as to what a daily 5 cm³ spoonful of this product will achieve. Instead the website refers you to articles published in magazines which talk about its anti-aging and anti-wrinkling properties and the scientific research that has been carried out.

So what is the beauty molecule and has it been proven to make people more beautiful, or at least retain their existing beauty, by aging less quickly?

The ‘beauty molecule’ is resveratrol ((3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene). It is not a new molecule and occurs naturally in red wine and the roots of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) as well as in other plants such as peanuts and cocoa. There have been several studies published on the use of resveratrol on animals (e.g. fruit flies, nematode worms and mice). The claims from these studies show some positive benefits but the claims are contradictory particularly regarding the relatively large amounts of resveratrol required to produce any effect, and the work is on-going.  There appears to have been no studies published that show conclusively that resveratrol provides any benefits to humans. One of the leading researchers using resveratrol on mice is Professor David Sinclair of Harvard University and his work is often quoted as evidence of resveratrol’s beneficial effects on humans. However in an article in Bloomberg Businessweek David Sinclair publicly states that many of the statements attributed to him on food supplement sites were never made by him.

Even if it is not guaranteed to make you beautiful resveratrol does have some interesting chemistry.

Because it is an asymmetric alkene it exists as cis- and trans- isomers. The trans- form (present in the supplement) can actually be converted to the cis- form in ultraviolet light. In the new syllabus for first examination in 2016 IB students will also need to be able to deduce the E and Z isomers. In this case the trans- isomer is the E isomer and the cis- isomer is the Z isomer. Those studying Option F: food chemistry will recognise that the presence of the phenolic groups is typical of many antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). This helps to explain resveratrol’s free-radical scavenging properties and it is not difficult to associate this with countering the effects of aging by sunlight on the skin which is thought to occur via a free radical mechanism.

We can all live in hope that by drinking red wine we will at least not become less beautiful!