Article Summary:
- Quercetin is a flavonoid that functions as an antioxidant and has immune-support properties to help maintain the body’s normal response to inflammation.*
- The poor natural absorption of quercetin minimizes its efficacy in supporting immune health.
- Tesseract’s innovative nutrient delivery nanotechnology overcomes quercetin’s absorption challenges to achieve its health benefits.
What is Quercetin?
Quercetin is a type of flavonoid that provides a broad range of health benefits. It is well-known for its potent antioxidant activities and ability to help maintain the body’s natural inflammatory response.*
Flavonoids are a class of phytonutrients found naturally in various fruits and vegetables, such as berries, grapes, apples, cruciferous vegetables, onions, shallots, and tomatoes, as well as tea.
Due to the ability of flavonoids to neutralize free radicals, there is increasing scientific interest in understanding how flavonoids influence immune function in the body.
Below, we discuss quercetin’s immune-supporting properties and explore why you should consider including this antioxidant in your daily nutritional supplement regimen.
Benefits of Quercetin Intake for Healthy Immune Function
Quercetin Glycosides
Quercetin naturally exists in various forms. For example, a form of quercetin that is particularly noted for its ability to enhance bioavailability through its increased water solubility, is querecetin glycoside.The glycoside form of quercetin, in particular, has enhanced water solubility, which makes it more easily absorbed in the body. This improved absorption enables quercetin to be more effective in reaching and positively influencing the body’s immune function.*
The following table highlights the specific ways quercetin’s immune system supportive properties work.
| Quercetin’s Immune-Support Properties | |
|---|---|
| Antioxidant Effects* | Immunomodulatory Effects* |
|
Free radical scavenger: Quercetin’s molecular structure is credited for its higher efficiency in scavenging free radicals. 1 |
Leukocyte up-regulator: Quercetin confers immune support by upregulating the activity of leukocytes 3.* Quercetin also exerts immuno-supportive activity by benefiting intracellular signaling pathways, enzymes, and membrane proteins.* |
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Lipid oxidation inhibitor: As a potent lipid oxidation inhibitor, quercetin suppresses the start of chain oxidation and propagation of free radicals.* |
Mast cell stabilizer: A meta-analysis shows that quercetin’s role in stabilizing mast cells and gastrointestinal cytoprotective activities benefits immune function 4.* |
| Quercetin’s endogenous antioxidant properties mitigate 2 a range of cellular injury caused by free radicals.* | Studies find 5 that quercetin influences dendritic cell functions — the initiator and master regulator of antigen-specific immune responses.* |
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Quercetin’s Absorption Challenges
Quercetin is primarily absorbed in the upper segment of the small intestine and subsequently metabolized in multiple organs, including the liver, small intestine, colon, and kidneys. However, quercetin is known for its naturally poor oral bioavailability:
| Although onions contain the highest natural source of quercetin, clinical trials show that after consuming an onion-rich meal, quercetin values peaked from baseline values after two hours and returned to baseline after 24 hours. This highlights how the body processes and eliminates quercetin relatively quickly. |
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Quercetin absorption depends on its chemical structure — the presence of associated sugar or glycosyl group. The absence of glycosyl group lowers its water solubility and absorption.
| Only 3-17 percent of quercetin glycosides, the most absorbable form, is absorbed in healthy individuals who ingested at least 100 mg 8. |
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Combining Quercetin with Zinc and Vitamin C for Better Absorption
- Zinc increases the absorption of quercetin by forming a chelate complex that improves quercetin’s solubility, stability, and cellular uptake, resulting in enhanced bioavailability and biological activity9.
- Quercetin also acts as an ionophore for zinc, creating channels in cell membranes to enhance zinc’s intracellular concentration.*
- Promising evidence suggests a synergistic protective effect of a quercetin, zinc, and vitamin C complex in benefiting the body’s natural immune responses.*
Including an Advanced Quercetin Supplement in Your Diet
How does quercetin support immune function? We have now discussed the antioxidant’s immune-supportive properties, but what is the best quercetin supplement to include in your diet?
QuerciSorb® Immuphore SR, developed by Tesseract Medical Research, is an innovative nutritional supplement formulated with a soluble form of quercetin that supports healthy immune function.* Zinc (as zinc picolinate), vitamin C (as ascorbic acid), and vitamin D (as cholecalciferol) are other bioactive and bioavailable ingredients in this hypoallergenic formulation that further support optimal immune function.*
Tesseract’s proprietary CyLoc – DexKey® nutrient delivery nanotechnology achieves quercetin’s benefits for promoting optimal immune function.*
- Maintaining the integrity of the quercetin molecule: The CyLoc® technology encases each quercetin molecule to maintain its integrity during transit through the stomach.
- Targeted delivery of the quercetin molecule: The DexKey® technology accompanies each CyLoc® molecule to release QuerciSorb’s active ingredient molecules at the desired point in the gastrointestinal tract.
The resulting optimal absorption of each QuerciSorb molecule makes it a bioavailable reality in achieving optimal immune function.*
The power of Tesseract supplements lies in enhancing palatability, maximizing solubility, absorption, and bioavailability, and micro-dosing a single or multiple nutrients in a single, highly effective capsule. Shop products on our website and learn more about how they support immune health.*
References:
1Rice-Evans CA, et al. Free Radical Research vol. 22,4(1995):375-383. doi:10.3109/10715769509145649
2Mlcek J, et al. Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 21,5 623. 12 May 2016, doi:10.3390/molecules21050623
3,4Chirumbolo S. Inflammation & Allergy Drug Targets vol. 9,4 (2010):263-285. doi:10.2174/187152810793358741
5Huang RY, et al. Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md.:1950) vol. 184,12(2010):6815-6821. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.0903991
6McAnlis GT, et al. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition vol. 53,2(1999):92-96. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600682
7Sahib HB, et al. Advances in Virology vol. 2022 1575605. 8 Jun 2022, doi:10.1155/2022/1575605
8Frenț, Olimpia-Daniela et al. International journal of molecular sciences vol. 25,22 12091. 11 Nov. 2024, doi:10.3390/ijms252212091
9Ramzan N, et al. Biometals. 2025 May 22. doi: 10.1007/s10534-025-00696-4. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40402366.
