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LEWISVILLE — Could the skin of North Carolina's own muscadine grape fight cancer?

Some researchers say it might, and a Lewisville businessman has set up a business to meet the demand he expects for products using those skins.

Bob Dalton , who once blended tobaccos for R.J. Reynolds, is now taking a nutritional supplement made of muscadine skins to market under the brand name Vinetra . He believes it will help fight cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and many other ailments.

He grows muscadines on land in the Yadkin River valley that has been in his family for generations, land on which muscadines still grow wild.

His products — essentially, powdered muscadine skin that can be taken as capsules or stirred into fruit smoothies or other drinks — have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and make no health claims.

But resveratrol, a chemical found in muscadine skins, has been widely studied in cancer research. According to the National Cancer Institute , research suggests it may inhibit the growth of or cause the death of leukemia cells and cells of cancers of the head, neck, breast, ovary, prostate and colon, among others. It also may be a potent anti-inflammatory agent.

Clinical trials in people have begun in the United States, Canada and Norway.

Resveratrol appears in highest concentration in muscadines, although it also can be found in other sources, such as peanuts and blueberries.

Dalton found out about the high levels in his grapes by accident in 2003.

He had noticed that his wild muscadines were more resistant to Japanese beetles than his cultivated varieties, such as merlot. A doctor friend suggested he analyze the various types of grapes to see what might be making the muscadines more resistant. Dalton was familiar with such analyses from his work with tobacco.

At harvest time, he gathered a gallon of each variety, and his friend sent them to a researcher. The researcher, Dalton says, called to ask where he got the muscadine grapes.

"I've been a research scientist for 40 years almost, and I've never in all my life seen anything with the amount of resveratrol this has got in it," Dalton recalls the researcher as saying.

Dalton's response? "Bill, what the hell is resveratrol?"

Dalton spent the next six weeks traveling the state, gathering muscadines from all over and sending them for analysis.

He created a pin map with information on each batch of grapes. He found that the farther west in the state grapes were picked, the higher the levels of resveratrol they held — up to a point, about 1,400 or 1,500 feet above sea level, above which the grapes won't grow well.

The Yadkin Valley grapes, he found, had the highest levels of resveratrol and other antioxidants. Antioxidants are believed to benefit the body by attacking molecules called free radicals that are thought to contribute to aging and disease.

Dalton also learned that he could boost the levels of antioxidants in his grapes by subjecting them to stress, such as by not irrigating them frequently. He also discovered that grapes needed to be harvested sooner than wine grapes normally would be if he wanted to maximize the resveratrol levels.

In 2004, Dalton turned an empty building in Duplin County, which produces most of the state's muscadine grapes, into a plant. He used equipment that once had been used to process tobacco.

Starting with 300,000 pounds of grape skins and seeds from two nearby wineries, he wanted to extract resveratrol in levels high enough to create a nutritional supplement, without using any artificial chemicals.

When that fall's grapes were harvested, he began trying to dry muscadine skins as he would dry tobacco, a single 1,000-pound bin at a time.

The early work didn't go well. "I burned too many skins," he says.

But after Christmas, he combined four fans with 60-horsepower motors turning at 6,500 revolutions per minute with air heated by natural gas to 120 degrees to dry the skins for powder.

On Jan. 13, 2005, he received an e-mail from the lab: "You have it."

He began giving powder to family and friends, asking them to record their experiences with it. Several reported that their rheumatoid arthritis had eased, he says.

In mid-2005, he began selling the product over the Internet. The product's name, originally Muscadine Plus, was changed to Vinetra on the advice of marketing consultants.

With research into resveratrol growing, Dalton is confident that demand for his grapes also will grow. But his business' growth depends on a supply of grapes.

Dalton currently cultivates about 100 acres and has others cultivating another 400 acres for him. He hopes to increase the acreage to 3,000 within five years.

Except for pruning and harvesting, he says, a single farmer can care for 10 acres by himself and make $60,000 to $80,000 per year. "A tobacco farmer is ideal," he says.

He also is planning to investigate whether muscadine leaves can be used to create a nutritional supplement. But he thinks the full benefits of the grape won't be realized for decades because the ways in which its many chemicals work together are poorly understood.

"It will take millions and millions of dollars to figure out what Mother Nature has done," he says. His company is helping fund some of that research.

Dalton has more than professional reasons for pursuing this research. Recently, his assessment for possible prostate cancer suggested that he was a strong candidate to develop the disease. But since Dalton began taking the supplement, he says, his assessments have been well into the normal range, and he has had several negative biopsies.

"I'm scared not to take this powder," he says.

The irony of a one-time cigarette maker producing a product that could fight cancer is not lost on him.

"There's many, many, many nights I've laid in bed thinking about it," he says. "You know what's the craziest thing? I've never been a smoker. I cannot stand being around it. But it was a job, and I was being paid well."

But now, although he's spending money and not yet making any, he believes he is better off.

"I've had people tell me they'll never be without it," he says. "It's unbelievable the satisfaction I've got out of that."

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lalexander@news-record.com