Two recent studies reveal a promising new candidate for diabetes treatment. You might have seen it on the news or read about it online—it’s called resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a chemical compound found in plants. It’s formed as an anti-microbial defense against pathogens such as fungus. Present in the skin of red grapes, resveratrol is in red wine.

There are many positive medicinal claims—anti-aging, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory—for resveratrol. Most of these are based on animal studies and are not yet confirmed to confer the same effects on humans. What has been shown in two human clinical studies is that resveratrol might be very useful for the management of diabetes.

In those studies, using both overweight and elderly patients, resveratrol was found to significantly improve insulin response in those who suffered from insulin resistance, often a precursor to full-blown diabetes. It lowered blood sugar levels significantly in study participants. Animal studies have also demonstrated the compound’s efficacy in relieving many symptoms of diabetes. How resveratrol does this exactly is yet unclear. In all trials, resveratrol hasn’t been found to have significant side-effects at study dosages.

It’ll be exciting to see what how the story of resveratrol develops as it passes through added clinical trials.