flavonoids

What can high-flavonoid foods do for you?

Help protect blood vessels from rupture or

leakage
Enhance the power of your vitamin C
Protect cells from oxygen damage
Prevent excessive inflammation throughout
your body

What events can indicate a need for more

high-flavonoid foods?

Easy bruising
Frequent nose bleeds
Excessive swelling after injury
Frequent colds or infections

Sources of flavonoids include: apples, apricots, blueberries,

pears, raspberries, strawberries, black beans, cabbage, onions,
parsley, pinto beans, and tomatoes.
For serving size for specific foods, see Nutrient Rating Chart
below at the bottom of this page.

Description
Function
Deficiency Symptoms
Toxicity Symptoms
Cooking, storage and
processing
Factors that affect function

Drug-nutrient
interaction
Nutrient interaction
Health conditions
Supplements
Food Sources
Public
Recommendations

References

Description
What are flavonoids?
Flavonoids, an amazing array of over 6,000 different
substances found in virtually all plants, are responsible for
many of the plant colors that dazzle us with their brilliant
shades of yellow, orange, and red.
Classified as plant pigments, flavonoids were discovered in
1938 when a Hungarian scientist named Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
used the term "vitamin P" to describe them.
The chemistry of flavonoids is complicated, and within the
non-technical term "flavonoids" can be found many different
chemical groups of substances. These groups include
flavonols, dihydroflavonols, flavones, isoflavones, flavanones,
anthocyanins, and anthocyanidins. Within each of these
groups fall hundreds, and sometimes thousands of different
flavonoids.
For example, well-known flavonols include quercetin, rutin,
and hesperidin, while well-known flavones include apigenin
and luteolin. Flavonoids may also be named directly after the
unique plant that contains them. Ginkgetin is a flavonoid from
the ginkgo tree, and tangeretin is a flavonoid from the
tangerine.
How it Functions
What is are the functions of flavonoids?
Protection of cell structures

Most flavonoids function in the human body as antioxidants.

In this capacity, they help neutralize overly reactive oxygencontaining molecules and prevent these overly reactive
molecules from damaging parts of cells. Particularly in
oriental medicine, plant flavonoids have been used for
centuries in conjunction with their antioxidant, protective
properties. Scultellaria root, cornus fruit, licorice, and green
tea are examples of flavonoid-containing foods widely used in
oriental medicine. While flavonoids may exert their cell
structure protection through a variety of mechanisms, one of
their potent effects may be through their ability to increase
levels of glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, as suggested by
various research studies.
Vitamin C support
The relationship between flavonoids and vitamin C was
actually discovered by mistake. Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the
Nobel Prize winning researcher who discovered flavonoids,
was attempting to make a preparation of vitamin C for one of
his patients with blood vessel problems. The preparation he
gave the patient was not 100% pure - it contained other
substances along with the vitamin C. It worked amazingly
well.
Later, when Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi purchased a pure solution of
vitamin C, he found it was not nearly so effective with his
patient. He suspected flavonoids as the magic addition to
vitamin C in his first impure preparation. Present-day research
has clearly documented the synergistic (mutually beneficial)
relationship between flavonoids and vitamin C. Each
substance improves the antioxidant activity of the other, and
many of the vitamin-related functions of vitamin C also appear
to require the presence of flavonoids.

Inflammation control
Inflammation - the body's natural response to danger or
damage - must always be carefully regulated to prevent
overactivation of the immune system and unwanted immune
response. Many types of cells involved with the immune
system - including T cells, B cells, NK cells, mast cells, and
neutrophils - have been shown to alter their behavior in the
presence of flavonoids. Prevention of excessive inflammation
appear to be a key role played by many different chemical
categories of flavonoids.
Antibiotic activity
In some cases, flavonoids can act directly as antibiotics by
disrupting the function of microorganisms like viruses or
bacteria. The antiviral function of flavonoids has been
demonstrated with the HIV virus, and also with HSV-1, a
herpes simplex virus.
Deficiency Symptoms
What are deficiency symptoms for
flavonoids?
Excessive bruisability, nose bleeds, swelling after injury, and
hemorrhoids can be indicators of flavonoid deficiency.
Generally weakened immune function, as evidenced by
frequent colds or infections, can also be a sign of inadequate
dietary intake of flavonoids.
Toxicity Symptoms
What are toxicity symptoms for flavonoids?

Even in very high amounts (for example, 140 grams per day),
flavonoids do not appear to cause unwanted side effects. Even
when raised to the level of 10% of total caloric intake,
flavonoid supplementation has been shown non-toxic. Studies
during pregnancy have also failed to show problems with
high-level intake of flavonoids.
Impact of Cooking, Storage and Processing
How do cooking, storage, or processing
affect flavonoids?
Heat, degree of acidity (pH), and degree of processing can
have a dramatic impact on the flavonoid content of food. For
example, in fresh cut spinach, boiling extracts 50% of the total
flavonoid content.
With onions (a less delicate food), boiling still removes about
30% of the flavonoids (and specifically, a group of flavonoids
called the quercitin glycosides). Overcooking of vegetables
has particularly problematic effects on this category of
nutrients.
Factors that Affect Function
What factors might contribute to a
deficiency of flavonoids?
Poor intake of fruits and vegetables - or routine intake of highprocessed fruits and vegetables - are common contributing
factors to flavonoid deficiency. It is difficult to overemphasize
the impact of processing and a non-whole foods diet on
flavonoid intake. If the pulpy, fibrous parts of fruits are
eliminated from the juice, and the vibrant natural colors of

canned vegetables are lost during repeated heating, risk of

flavonoid deficiency is greatly increased.
Drug-Nutrient Interactions
What medications affect flavonoids?
The impact of prescription medicines on flavonoid status is
not well studied. However, in an interesting twist when
looking from the other direction at the impact of flavonoids on
drug status, researchers have discovered that a flavonoid in
grapefruit juice called naringin can increase the absorption of
certain heart-related drugs (including nifedipine, felodipine
and verapamil), as well as the antihistamine terfenadine.
Nutrient Interactions
How do other nutrients interact with
flavonoids?
Present-day research has clearly documented the synergistic
(mutually beneficial) relationship between flavonoids and
vitamin C. Each substance improves the antioxidant activity of
the other, and many of the vitamin-related functions of
vitamin C also appear to require the presence of flavonoids.
Health Conditions
What health conditions require special
emphasis on flavonoids?
Flavonoids may play a role in the prevention
and/or treatment of the following health
conditions:

Allergy

Asthma
Atopic dermatitis
Candida infection
Cataracts
Diabetes
Gout
Hemorrhoids
Macular degeneration
Migraine
Periodontal disease
Stomach ulcer
Varicose veins

Form in Dietary Supplements

What forms of flavonoids are found in
dietary supplements?
By far the most common supplemental form of flavonoids are
the citrus flavonoids quercetin, rutin, and hesperidin. Of these
three, the most common is quercetin.
Doses in commonly sold supplements usually range from 25200 milligrams, although clinical studies using flavonoids
often use much higher level interventions in the 500-3,000
milligram range.
It is not difficult to reach the 1,000-milligram range from
dietary intake, if the diet contains an adequate amount of
whole, properly prepared fruits and vegetables.
Food Sources
What foods provide flavonoids?

Virtually all fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices contain

flavonoids. They are also found in other types of food,
including dry beans (where they give red beans,black beans,
and speckled beans their color) and grains (where the color
provided by flavonoids is usually in the yellow family).
Products made from the foods above (for example, wines
made from grapes) also typically contain a wide variety of
flavonoids.
While the flavonoid family is too complex to report all of its
food connections, some highlights are especially important. In
the fruit family, it is berries that come out highest in the
chemical category of flavonoids called anthocyanins. Black
raspberries, for example, may contain up to 100 milligrams of
anthocyanins per ounce.
Green tea has flavonoid components called catechins that may
reach 1,000 milligrams (or 1 gram) per cup. In general the
more colorful components of the food - like the skins of fruits
- contain the highest concentration of flavonoids. An
exception to this rule, however, is the white pulpy inside of
oranges. Unlike the watery orange-colored sections of this
fruit, which contain virtually all of its vitamin C, the orange's
flavonoids are found in the white pulpy portion inside the skin
and surrounding the sections.

Food Source Analysis not Available for this Nutrient

Public Health Recommendations
What are current public health
recommendations for flavonoids?

At present there are no public health recommendations for

flavonoids.
References

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