I have a bottle of Natural Factors EMIQ but im scared to take it because some guy said its a Mutagen and that it will make your heart suffer. is there truth to this?
I remember a post referring to quercetin mutagenicity. I thought about commenting at the time, but never got to it. Your post prompted me to look into it. In the meantime, Gal220’s links have pretty much answered the question.
Anyway, a Pubmed search: quercetin AND (mutagen OR genotoxic) -> many papers showing that quercetin scores as a direct mutagen in the Ames test. But it has been thoroughly tested and is not found to be a carcinogen, despite being a mutagen.
The same search finds papers showing that quercetin also protects against the mutagenic, carcinogenic, or toxic effects of many other compounds in different systems. Quercetin and related flavonoids have multiple effects, including inhibiting sulfotransferase 1A1 and CYP1a1, each of which activates certain carcinogens to their active form.
Looking for effects of quercetin in the heart, without reference to mutagenicity, we find:
Quercetin Dihydrate proposed for the treatment of myocardial fibrosis because it inhibits fibrosis induced by Angiotensin II.
This paper in Medical Hypotheses elaborates on the quercetin/interferon connection: “The serine/threonine kinase CK2 has been shown to down-regulate the production of type 1 interferons in response to viral infections by conferring an inhibitory phosphorylation on RIG-I, which functions to detect double-stranded RNA generated during replication of RNA viruses. Quercetin and certain other planar flavones/flavonols can inhibit CK2 in high nanomolar concentrations; this may explain quercetin's ability to slow the proliferation of RNA viruses in cell cultures and in mice. Limited clinical evidence suggests that supplemental quercetin may decrease risk for upper respiratory infections in humans. Quercetin and enzymatically-modified isoquercitrin (EMIQ - a food additive/nutraceutical that upon oral administration achieves far higher plasma concentrations of quercetin than quercetin per se) also have exerted a range of vascular-protective effects clinically and in rodents - improving endothelial function, warding off atherosclerosis, lowering blood pressure, decreasing C-reactive protein, aiding glycemic control, stabilizing platelets - that might also, at least in part, reflect CK2 inhibition. The utility of quercetin, EMIQ, and other clinically feasible CK2 inhibitors for aiding control of viral infections and promoting vascular and metabolic health merits further evaluation.”
All in all, I feel safe in consuming quercetin. I would also point out that the early papers that wondered how quercetin could be a mutagen but not a carcinogen were published before the concept of hormesis was widely appreciated.
Edited by DanCG, 03 June 2020 - 01:10 PM.