Quercetin


Quercetin is a plant flavonol from the flavonoid group of polyphenols. It is found in many fruits, vegetables, leaves, seeds, and grains; red onions and kale are common foods containing appreciable amounts of quercetin. Quercetin has a bitter flavor and is used as an ingredient in dietary supplements, beverages, and foods.

Occurrence

Quercetin is a flavonoid widely distributed in nature. The name has been used since 1857, and is derived from quercetum, after the oak genus Quercus. It is a naturally occurring polar auxin transport inhibitor.
Quercetin is one of the most abundant dietary flavonoids, with an average daily consumption of 25–50 milligrams.
FoodsQuercetin
capers, raw234
capers, canned173
dock like sorrel86
radish leaves70
carob fiber58
dill55
cilantro53
Hungarian wax pepper51
fennel leaves49
onion, red32
radicchio32
watercress30
kale23
chokeberry19
bog blueberry18
cranberry15
lingonberry13
plums, black12

In red onions, higher concentrations of quercetin occur in the outermost rings and in the part closest to the root, the latter being the part of the plant with the highest concentration. One study found that organically grown tomatoes had 79% more quercetin than non-organically grown fruit. Quercetin is present in various kinds of honey from different plant sources.

Biosynthesis

In plants, phenylalanine is converted to 4-coumaroyl-CoA in a series of steps known as the general phenylpropanoid pathway using phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, cinnamate-4-hydroxylase, and 4-coumaroyl-CoA-ligase. One molecule of 4-coumaroyl-CoA is added to three molecules of malonyl-CoA to form tetrahydroxychalcone using 7,2′-dihydroxy-4′-methoxyisoflavanol synthase. Tetrahydroxychalcone is then converted into naringenin using chalcone isomerase.
Naringenin is converted into eriodictyol using flavanoid 3′-hydroxylase. Eriodictyol is then converted into dihydroquercetin with flavanone 3-hydroxylase, which is then converted into quercetin using flavonol synthase.

Glycosides

Quercetin is the aglycone form of a number of other flavonoid glycosides, such as rutin and quercitrin, found in citrus fruit, buckwheat and onions. Quercetin forms the glycosides quercitrin and rutin together with rhamnose and rutinose, respectively. Likewise guaijaverin is the 3-O-arabinoside, hyperoside is the 3-O-galactoside, isoquercitin is the 3-O-glucoside and spiraeoside is the 4′-O-glucoside. CTN-986 is a quercetin derivative found in cottonseeds and cottonseed oil. Miquelianin is the quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucuronopyranoside.

Rutin degradation pathway

The enzyme quercitrinase can be found in Aspergillus flavus. This enzyme hydrolyzes the glycoside quercitrin to release quercetin and L-rhamnose. It is an enzyme in the rutin catabolic pathway.

Pharmacology

Pharmacokinetics

The bioavailability of quercetin in humans is low and highly variable, and it is rapidly cleared with an elimination half-life of 1–2 hours after ingesting quercetin foods or supplements. Following dietary ingestion, quercetin undergoes rapid and extensive metabolism that makes the biological effects presumed from in vitro studies unlikely to apply in vivo.

Metabolism

In rats, quercetin did not undergo any significant phase I metabolism. In contrast, quercetin did undergo extensive phase II to produce metabolites that are more polar than the parent substance and hence are more rapidly excreted from the body. The meta-hydroxyl group of catechol is methylated by catechol-O-methyltransferase. Four of the five hydroxyl groups of quercetin are glucuronidated by UDP-glucuronosyltransferase. The exception is the 5-hydroxyl group of the flavonoid ring which generally does not undergo glucuronidation. The major metabolites of orally absorbed quercetin are quercetin-3-glucuronide, 3'-methylquercetin-3-glucuronide, and quercetin-3'-sulfate.

In vitro pharmacology

Quercetin has been reported to inhibit the oxidation of other molecules and hence is classified as an antioxidant. It contains a polyphenolic chemical substructure that stops oxidation by acting as a scavenger of free radicals that are responsible for oxidative chain reactions.
Quercetin also activates or inhibits the activities of a number of proteins. For example, quercetin is a non-specific protein kinase enzyme inhibitor. Quercetin has also been reported to have estrogenic activities by activating estrogen receptors. Quercetin activates both estrogen receptor alpha and beta with binding IC50 values of 1015 nM and 113 nM, respectively. Hence quercetin is somewhat ERβ selective and is roughly two to three orders of magnitude less potent than the endogenous estrogenic hormone 17β-estradiol. In human breast cancer cell lines, quercetin has also been found to act as an agonist of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor.

Health claims

Quercetin has been studied in basic research and small clinical trials. While supplements have been promoted for the treatment of cancer and various other diseases, there is no high-quality evidence that quercetin is useful to treat cancer or any other disease.
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to several manufacturers advertising on their product labels and websites that quercetin product can be used to treat diseases. The FDA regards such quercetin advertising and products as unapproved - with unauthorized health claims concerning the anti-disease products - as defined by "sections 201 and/or 201 of the Act because they are intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease", conditions which were not met by the manufacturers.

Safety

In preliminary human studies, oral intake of quercetin in doses up to one gram per day over three months did not cause adverse effects. The safety of using quercetin in dietary supplements during pregnancy and lactation has not been established.