Resveratrol is a chemical substance found in plants when placed under stress, with especially high levels found in grapes. There have been various studies done to show that resveratrol extends longevity in many creatures included fruit flies and mice, as well as other studies on human blood to test other effects such as anticancer properties. The purpose of the project was to determine if resveratrol significantly lengthened the lifespan of Drosophila Melanogaster fruit flies when placed under nutritional stress. Resveratrol has become more popular in recent years due to the popularize life-extending effects as well as its other various health benefits. The recommended daily dose of resveratrol for humans is approximately 500 mg daily, and the necessary amount for 20 days of resveratrol is less than twenty dollars. This could potentially be a cheap way to keep children and adults alive during times of famine or starvation until a food source can be reached.

Fruit flies were placed in culture vials the day they emerged containing 2mL of Formula-424, 2mL of water, and .1mL of resveratrol solution either in a dose of 500M, 1000M, 150UM, or 2000M with one control group with no solution added. The number of flies that were alive each day until all flies in each day in each vial was recorded until all flies were dead. There were two vials for each level, one for female and one for male fruit flies to keep them from breeding and approximately five flies per culture, ten per level. This procedure was completed 5 times, with 4 successful trials. There was a follow-up trial to determine if there was a harmful dose of resveratrol or an optimal level, with resveratrol doses of OUM, 750M, 1000M, 125UM, and 500UM.

The main experiment suggested after an ANOVA analysis with Tukey HSD, Scheffe, and Bonferroni and Holm comparisons of all data points throughout the study that there was statistical significance with a p value below.05 when comparing between OuM and 100uM levels, as well as between 1000M and 200UM. This prompted a new study with the changed doses as listed above. There was evidence to suggest that there is an optimal of resveratrol for fruit flies at 1000M, but that after that dose the effects of resveratrol decrease until it is the same as if there was no resveratrol with no evidence of a harmful dose. This data suggests that there is a life lengthening effect of resveratrol when given in the optimal dose.