Weixin Wang, Xioajuan Tan, Jiyang Sheng, Tongtong Chen, Ai-Qun Jia*

Environmental and Biological Engineering School, Nanjing University of Science and Technology

Resveratrol, belonging to stilbenoids, is distributed widely in many traditional Chinese medicines (TCM), such as in Smilax China and Vitis vinifera species. Three bioactive assays were studied here:

(1) Inhibition of bacterial quorum sensing. In this part, quorum sensing inhibition activity of resveratrol was tested using Chromobacterium violaceum CV026 as the bio-indicator strain. Resveratrol showed potential anti-QS activities. At the sub-MIC concentration, resveratrol demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of violacein in C. violaceum CV026 in a concentration dependent manner. Furthermore, the effects of resveratrol on QS regulated virulence factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 were also evaluated. The results showed that resveratrol can markedly decrease the production of pyocyanin and swarming motility of P. aeruginosa PAO1;

(2) Inhibition of bacterial biofilm. In this part, two pathogenic bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), were investigated. The results showed that resveratrol could inhibit MRSA biofilm formation and removed partially established biofilm, BUT resveratrol could not inhibit MSSA biofilm formation;

(3) Scavenging of toxic acrolein by resveratrol. The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of resveratrol to scavenge acrolein under physiological conditions (pH 7.4 and 37 ^oC). As we know, acrolein is a toxic α, β-unsaturated aldehyde that exists in human body and foods due to lipid peroxidation, polyamine catabolism, heating or baking of carbohydrate-containing foods, and overheating cooking oil. After incubating with equal molar concentrations of resveratrol for 12 h, there was only 6.4% of acrolein left. These were accompanied by a decrease of 55.0% resveratrol. The results suggest that resveratrol could exert health benefits in part through neutralizing toxic acrolein in human body. Above all, resveratrol could be one star stilbenoids in medical and food fieldsstry.