Resveratrol and quercetin, molecules naturally present in many plant-based foodstuffs and beverages (grapes, wine, onions, apples, etc.) have displayed a certain capacity to reduce body fat, besides other effects that are beneficial for health. In the latest pieces of work conducted as part of the PhD thesis by Noemi Arias, it was seen how the administering of a combination of these two compounds exerts an effect known as the 'browning' of white adipose tissue in a group of rats fed on an obesogenic diet (rich in fat and sugar). This effect, apart from others observed in this same experiment, could explain and therefore contribute towards the reduction in body weight and fat observed in this group of rats.

Brown adipose tissue is a fatty tissue that until not so long ago was thought to be present only in new-born babies and hibernating animals. This tissue is responsible for dissipating energy in the form of heat to maintain body temperature (rather than storing it, which is what happens with white adipose tissue), a process known as thermogenesis. Its recent discovery in adult humans, too, and the inverse correlation existing between the quantity of this tissue and a lower Body Mass Index, has caught the attention of the scientific community.

Browning is a recently discovered process that consists of the development of adipocytes (or fat cells) with features of brown adipocytes within the white adipose tissue (known as beige or brite adipocytes). The activating of this process could help to reduce body fat. The browning effect of this blend (resveratrol and quercetin) was discovered for the first time by the research group that Noemí Arias belongs to thanks to the collaboration of the University of the Balearic Islands (the group led by Prof Andreu Palou and also belonging to CIBERobm), which has made it possible to take out a patent.

Additional information

The researcher Noemí Arias-Rueda belongs to the Nutrition and Obesity Group of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, which is part of the Biomedical Research Group Network -Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBERobn). She got a distinction cum laude after reading her PhD thesis entitled ‘Efectos de la combinación de biomoléculas presentes en los alimentos, ácido linoléico conjugado, resveratrol y quercetina, sobre la acumulación de grasa corporal' (Effects of combining biomolecules present in foodstuffs–conjugated linoleic acid, resveratrol and quercetin– on the accumulation of body fat). Much of this research, which has been funded by a project of the National Plan of the Spanish Ministry for the Economy and Competitiveness, has already been published in international scientific journals and has resulted in a national patent, published in the Official Gazette for Industrial Property (Boletín Oficial de la Propiedad Industrial) in March 2015.  The thesis was supervised by Prof Mª del Puy Portillo and the tenured lecturer Mª Teresa Macarulla in the UPV/EHU's Department of Pharmacy and Food Sciences (Nutrition and Bromatology Area).

Publications and patent

Arias N, Macarulla MT, Aguirre L, Milton I, Portillo MP. The combination of resveratrol and quercetin enhances the individual effects of these molecules on triacylglycerol metabolism in white adipose tissue. European Journal of Nutrition, 2015.
Arias N, Macarulla MT, Aguirre L, Miranda J, Portillo MP. Liver delipidating effect of a combination of resveratrol and quercetin in rats fed an obesogenic diet. Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, 2015.
Patent: ‘Composiciones y usos en la activación de la termogénesis' (Compositions and uses in the activating of thermogenesis). Ref.no.:ES2654.6. Published in the Official Gazette for Industrial Property (Boletín Oficial de la Propiedad Industrial), March 2015.