Just got a chance to read a closed thread from last year ,that ranked piceatannol the top sirt1 activator and thought it might warrant a little more discussion here since it scored 3x higher than resveratrol in their newly developed assay. Here's a link to the paper. which seems to have moved. Here's a summary of the assay rankings of compounds I could identify which got me thinking about lots of things:
piceatannol 3.09
pterostilbene 1.86
luteolin 1.45
fisetin 1.39
resveratrol 1.29
myricetin 0.43
quercetin 0.38
butein 0.04
If I understand their metrics, anything above a 1 is an activator and anything below is an inhibitor. Suggesting that maybe quercetin and resveratrol should not be taken together if you are interested in sirt1 activation.
I wonder if there might be some advantage in supplementing with piceatannol instead of resveratrol? I've only been able to identify one supplement supplier, Zetpil, who supplies 500 mg suppositories. But I did locate this paper on how to convert resveratrol into a form of piceatannol that is oil-soluble:
New Lipophilic Piceatannol Derivatives Exhibiting Antioxidant Activity Prepared by Aromatic Hydroxylation with 2-Iodoxybenzoic Acid (IBX)
Piceatannol (E-3,5,3’,4’-tetrahydroxystilbene) is a phytoalexin synthesized in grapes in response to stress conditions. It exhibits strong antioxidant and antileukaemic activities due to the presence of the catechol moiety. To modify some physical properties like solubility, and miscibility in non-aqueous media some new previously unreported piceatannol derivatives having lipophilic chains on the A-ring were prepared in good yields by a simple and efficient procedure. The key step was a chemo- and regioselective aromatic hydroxylation with 2-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX). The new compounds showed antioxidant activity and seemed promising for possible applications as multifunctional emulsifiers in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical fields.
Which got me thinking about the solubility of all these things, generally. Apparently resveratrol is relatively insoluble in both oils and water (.03mg/ml) but pretty soluble in ethanol (50 mg/ml) and dmso (16 mg/ml). Pure piceatannol, however, is somewhat more soluble in water (.5 mg/ml). While thats's greater than a 10x improvement over resveratrol, oil-soluble versions might be even better, perhaps rivaling C60 in evoo.
Pterostilbene looks pretty interesting too. It rates higher in the assay at 1.86 compared to resveratrol 1.29. And although its less soluble in water than resveratrol (.021 mg/ml) I found a reference that it's more lipophilic than resveratrol.
Howard