How we scored it
Flavonoid typically obtained by extracting and hydrolysing rutin from plant sources such as Sophora japonica; no petrochemical fragment in the dominant route.
What counts. ISO 16128-2 scores the atoms that remain in the final ingredient. Reagents, solvents, catalysts and protecting groups used during manufacture leave no mass behind and are not counted.
Where it comes from
Produced by extracting rutin from Sophora japonica flower buds, or citrus, and hydrolysing it to quercetin. A minor synthetic route exists but is not dominant.
In plain English
A plant flavonoid antioxidant used in skincare, usually made by extracting and processing a compound from the pagoda tree's flower buds.
CosIng definition: Quercetin is the organic compound that conforms to the formula
Structure
2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,5,7-trihydroxychromen-4-one
References
- 1ISO 16128-1:2016 and ISO 16128-2:2017 — Guidelines on technical definitions and criteria for natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and products. ISO, Geneva.
- 2Quercetin. PubChem CID 5280343. National Center for Biotechnology Information. pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ↗
- 3QUERCETIN. CosIng — European Commission cosmetic ingredient database. ec.europa.eu/cosing ↗
- 4QUERCETIN. CosIng u2014 European Commission database for information on cosmetic substances and ingredients. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing/search?search=QUERCETIN