Quercetin And Black Pepper Extract Explained Simply

Two names at the end of the blend

The botanical blend on the LungFresh label ends with two entries that are easy to skim past: Quercetin and Black Pepper Fruit Extract. They are very different kinds of ingredient. One is a single plant compound, and the other is an extract of a familiar spice.

This guide takes them one at a time. As with other posts in this series, it is a neutral explainer about what each ingredient is, where it occurs in nature and food, and how it is written on a label.

Both are plant-derived, and both turn up in ordinary kitchens, so there is a good chance you have met them before, even if not by these names. Knowing a little about each makes the end of the blend line far easier to read.

What quercetin is

Quercetin is a flavonoid, which is a member of a very large family of plant compounds. Flavonoids are responsible for many of the pigments, such as the yellow, red, blue and purple colors in fruits, vegetables and flowers. Quercetin is one of the most widespread flavonoids in the plant world and is especially common in the outer layers of plant foods.

Foods that contain it include red and yellow onions, apples, capers, berries, grapes, kale, broccoli and tea. In nature, quercetin is often found attached to a carbohydrate-like molecule in forms with names such as rutin or quercitrin, though the plain compound is the one named on this label.

On a label, you will usually find it written simply as Quercetin, sometimes followed by a bracket naming the plant it comes from.

• Type: a plant flavonoid
• Found in: onions, apples, capers, berries, kale, tea
• Common label name: Quercetin

Where the LungFresh quercetin comes from

The LungFresh label states that its quercetin is from Sophora japonica flower buds. Sophora japonica, also known as the Japanese pagoda tree, is a tree native to China and Korea that is now planted as an ornamental shade tree in many cities around the world. In botanical references it is sometimes also listed under the name Styphnolobium japonicum.

The tree produces clusters of small cream-colored flowers in late summer. The flower buds, before they open, are rich in a flavonoid compound that can be processed into quercetin. In traditional botanical practice across East Asia, the buds have long been gathered and dried.

So when a label says Quercetin (from Sophora japonica flower buds), it is telling you the plant source of the compound, a detail some brands include to be transparent about where an ingredient came from.

What black pepper fruit extract is

Black pepper comes from Piper nigrum, a flowering vine native to the Malabar Coast of southwestern India and now grown in tropical regions around the world, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil. The vine produces long clusters of small round berries, which botanists call fruits, or drupes. These are what the spice is made from.

When the berries are picked green and dried, they turn dark and creased, becoming the black peppercorns on a kitchen table. Black Pepper Fruit Extract is made by processing those dried fruits with a solvent, concentrating the liquid and drying it into a powder.

The name Fruit Extract is a useful clue. It tells you that the part used is the fruit of the plant, as opposed to the leaf or root. The pungent taste associated with pepper is linked to a compound called piperine, which some labels mention in brackets, for example Black Pepper Fruit Extract (standardized for piperine).

Reading the two names on a label

Because quercetin is a single compound and black pepper extract is a plant extract, the two entries follow slightly different label patterns. A single compound is named directly, while an extract is described by its plant, its part and its form.

Both appear in the LungFresh botanical blend, which also includes Mullein Leaf, Pineapple Stem, Maritime Pine Bark, Stinging Nettle Root and Tiger Milk Mushroom. A blend shows a combined amount, and the ingredients listed inside it follow descending order by amount.

It is also worth knowing that black pepper, though it is called pepper, is unrelated to chili peppers or bell peppers, which belong to a different plant family altogether. The two share a name only because early European traders used the word pepper for any spice with a hot bite. Likewise, quercetin has no connection with the quercus genus of oak trees apart from a shared Latin root, since the compound was first named from the word for oak, quercetum.

The bottle label is the authoritative reference for the precise wording and numbers, and the brand describes the product as a daily capsule dietary supplement for adults.

• Quercetin: single compound, plant source sometimes given
• Black Pepper Fruit Extract: part used is the fruit
• Piperine: the pungent compound sometimes named in brackets
• Blend: combined amount, ingredients in descending order by amount

Everyday context

Quercetin and black pepper might seem like opposite ends of the kitchen: one is a pigment found in onions and apples, the other is the spice shaker beside the stove. Together they are a good reminder that many supplement ingredients are simply familiar plant materials in concentrated form.

If you take LungFresh, the suggested use is two capsules daily with a glass of water, around six to eight ounces, or as the label directs. A bottle has 60 capsules, and packs of two, three or six bottles are available as a one-time purchase, with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Orders ship within 24 to 48 hours and delivery typically takes three to ten business days. Store the bottle in a cool, dry place.