"The documentation on the health benefits of resveratrol is significant, currently more than 4,000 scientific papers have been published and the number is growing," said Iben Plate, technical marketing manager for the global supplier of natural health ingredients.

Referring to a list of US trials into the ingredient, Plate said: "On this list, the number of resveratrol trials has doubled during the past 12 months. Fluxome is engaging in several relevant studies."

These include a study of resveratrol's anti-inflammatory effects. "Fluxome is engaged in a study on healthy elderly men. The study aims at demonstrating the anti-inflammatory effect of resveratrol in combination with exercise. This study is double-blinded and placebo controlled."

Plate said Fluxome's first target was the European supplements market, but it had an eye on food in the long term.

At the start of this year, the company announced its involvement in the biggest research project to date investigating resveratrol's potential to combat metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a catchall term referring to a group of risk factors associated with ageing that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes