Quercetin and Public Health

Recently, a team from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, had found that Quercetin helps to prevent multiplication of cancerous cells by blocking the process of cell division. This makes the application of Quercetin in the Health sector very important. Quercetin belongs to a group of plant pigments known as flavonoids that gives many fruits, flowers, and vegetables their colors. Its sources include Tomatoes, broccoli, raw asparagus, raw red onion, red and black grapes, apple, apricot, cherry and coriander.

Economic Significance of Quarcetine

Quarcetine is typically found in veggies and fruits. Therefore, it has economic significance in two ways- firstly, it will help boost the horticulture sector wherein production would increase and secondly it stands out to be economical for the common man as it is naturally found ingredient and the medicine containing quarcetine would be cheaper for an individual. Therefore, an economic benefit directly links with a social cause.

Applicability of Quarcetine

The application part of quarcetine is wide. Quarcetine being antioxidants can help to neutralize free radicals.

  • Quercetin may help protect against heart disease and cancer. Quercetin can also help stabilize the cells that release histamine in the body and thereby have an anti-inflammatory and antihistamine effect.
  • It also helps to reduce symptoms of allergies, including runny nose, watery eyes, hives, and swelling of the face and lips.
  • Quercetin also helpsto preventhigh cholesterol as people who eat diets high in flavonoids have lower cholesterol.
  • Quercetin supplementation helps to reduce blood pressure in people who have hypertension.

Besides the above stated benefits, quarcetin helps to prevent bladder pain and prostatitis.

Quarcetine’s role in prevention of Cancer

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) noted that in 2016 the total number of new cancer cases is expected to be around 14.5 lakh and the figure would likely reach to nearly 17.3 lakh new cases by 2020.

The number of cancer cases looks huge and in this situation quercetin can help reduce the number to a great extent. Quarcetine possesses a variety of potent anti-cancer attributes and can even be combined with chemo drugs to treat cancer.

The intelligence in every cell of our body is called NF-kappaB. This gene signal figures out how the cell will deal with stress, and comes up with new solutions if it has not previously seen the problem. When NF-kappaB is forced to work overtime due to an unresolved problem its gene activity runs “hot” and is typically associated with excessive inflammation. Cancer literally hijacks NF-kappaB and uses its intelligence to further the survival of cancer cells.

Quercetin directly helps to turn down NF-kappa B activity, thereby interfering with the hijacking process. Furthermore, quercetin directly turned on a different set of gene signals that induced cell death to the cancer cells.

This brings out the importance of nutrition and especially quarcetine which can help prevent a dangerous disease known as cancer.


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