Science at its Best
This stuff is remarkable.
If you paid attention during the pandemic, you may have become familiar with a flavonoid called quercetin, it certainly got our attention with its unique zinc ionophore activity! While quercetin is a fantastic flavonoid with a wide range of benefits, there is one issue with it, the bioavailability is not great. To overcome this can be quite simple, just increase the dosage, which is exactly what we did with our original quercetin offering. However, we wanted to approach the quercetin bioavailability issue with a more high tech solution! That solution is loading quercetin into a phytosome. A phytosome is a phospholipid sphere, into which you can load tiny quercetin particles. This drastically increases the bioavailability, making quercetin within a phytosome an even more fascinating flavonoid supplement!*
Now, if you missed the quercetin craze of 2020, you may be asking yourself, why do I want a quercetin supplement, let alone a cutting edge high bioavailability formulation? First and foremost, quercetin has a very unique immune function promoting effect.* It achieves this by shuttling zinc into our cells. Since zinc has profound immune modulating properties, being able to shuttle it to where it needs to go via quercetin’s zinc ionophore activity dramatically increases the immune modulating properties of zinc already present in our bodies, and also supplemental zinc.* Beyond the immune function benefits, quercetin is also great at regulating histamine and inflammation levels, while even promoting exercise performance and modulating the NAD+ pathways!*
Quercetin is a flavonoid which is found in a large variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Most commonly it is found in high concentrations in a tree called Sophora japonica though, with quercetin concentrating in its flower buds. This is also exactly where our quercetin comes from, both in our regular quercetin offering and in this new exciting quercetin phytosome!
One of the issues with quercetin, is that it has a hard time jumping in between water and lipids, as it is poorly soluble in water. This ability to jump between water and lipids, is referred to as the partition coefficient (LogP), and for quercetin, the LogP lands at a value that prevents it from easily absorbing. This means that we have to give it a little help. One thing that can help is ensuring particle size is very small, and a second strategy would be embedding quercetin in some sort of phospholipid matrix. This is exactly what has been achieved with the quercetin phytosome. We can achieve both much smaller particle size in addition to embedding the quercetin in a phospholipid which can help with its solubility issues. The final result, a quercetin phytosome, pulls off a pretty incredible feat, boosting quercetin bioavailability almost 20-fold!
One of the most unique effects associated with quercetin, is its ability to act as a zinc ionophore. To pull a shameless Leslie Knope, Webster’s dictionary defines an ionophore as:
“A compound that facilitates transmission of an ion (as of calcium) across a lipid barrier (as in a cell membrane) by combining with the ion or by increasing the permeability of the barrier to it”
Quercetin produces this interesting effect, specifically for zinc. To break this effect down a little bit more, let’s think about how compounds can get into a cell. This either happens through passive diffusion or through active transport. Passive diffusion is a tough trick to pull off for most compounds and for active transport to take place, you need to get lucky with having a specific transporter for your target compound. Zinc certainly has specific active transporters it can use, however, it could still use a helping hand. This is where inophore’s come in. We can think of them sort of as chaperones, carrying zinc straight into cells where it can exert its benefits.* Zinc plays a crucial role in many cellular processes, and one of the main ones is inhibiting the replication of “you know what (sorry, the word we want to use here is apparently a naughty word!)”. This effect of zinc within cells leads to a robust immune function promoting effect, which is no surprise given how well known the immune modulating effects of zinc are already, even when it is not in the presence of an ionophore!*
Beyond quercetin’s ionophore properties, it exerts some other unique effects. One of these effects, is another one of quercetin claims to fame, and that is regulating histamine release.* While this effect is still somewhat misunderstood, quercetin is one of the only natural compounds which seems to have a direct effect on lowering histamine release. This can have many positive effects when it comes to inflammation and may even help with sleep.*
Quercetin also has some interesting effects on exercise performance, specifically when it comes to enhancing endurance and recovery.* In a study on triathlon athletes which used a quercetin phytosome supplement, the athletes were able to perform the sprint portion of the triathlon faster, and reported quicker recovery. Some of these effects can certainly be attributed to the oxidation regulating effect of quercetin, but it is very likely that these effects can also be traced back to quercetin’s AMPK activation effects or even its ability to inhibit CD38, an enzyme which normally degrades NAD+.*
The Immune Stack: Quercetin phytosome + Microzinc Capsules
Well, this is of course a no-brainer! Since quercetin acts as a zinc ionophore, it makes a lot of sense to supplement it alongside, you guessed it, zinc!*
The Histamine Stack: Quercetin phytosome + Palmitoylethanolamide Capsules
Finding natural compounds that help modulate histamine release and function is pretty tough, but luckily both quercetin and PEA do a great job at this. Quercetin as we talked about earlier, can inhibit histamine release, while PEA can help stabilize mast cells. Together, they have a prominent effect on modulating histaminergic tone!*
The Exercise Stack: Quercetin phytosome + Cordyceps Mushroom 10:1 Dual Extract Capsules
Since the performance benefits of quercetin seem to be focused on enhancing endurance, it made perfect sense to combine it with one of our all time favorite endurance enhancers, cordyceps 10:1. When taken together, you get the energizing and endurance enhancing effects of Cordyceps 10:1, which are potentiated by quercetin. Then once the exercise session is over, the quercetin will help you recover quicker, meaning you can train more frequently!*
As a dietary supplement, take one 250mg capsule of Quercetin phytosome daily.
To gain more insight, see the Quercefit reviews and experiences below.
Nootropics Depot offers 30ct. or 90ct. jars of high-quality Quercefit. Nootropics Depot’s Quercefit has been lab-tested and verified for both product purity and identity.
| *Attention: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. |
This stuff is remarkable.
It's night and Day Compared to the regular form....There's a lot of junk research these days, but my experience has been this consistently reverses fortunes when viruses get unreasonably mean. Also, turns off an endless runny nose like a faucet without any of the dried out side effects.
This stuff is remarkable.
It's night and Day Compared to the regular form....There's a lot of junk research these days, but my experience has been this consistently reverses fortunes when viruses get unreasonably mean. Also, turns off an endless runny nose like a faucet without any of the dried out side effects.