Luteolin vs Quercetin
One hydroxyl apart — a flavone and a flavonol — and routinely treated as the same thing. Their human records are the part that does not match.
Luteolin
3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyflavone, cynaroside
A genuinely strong mast-cell and microglial mechanism whose entire human record is combination products — and the one placebo-controlled test of luteolin alone was negative.
Full Luteolin evidence reviewQuercetin
Modest, real blood-pressure benefit; its senolytic fame belongs to the dasatinib+quercetin combo in tiny pilots, not quercetin alone.
Full Quercetin evidence reviewSide by side
| Luteolin | Quercetin | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketed for | Mast-cell stabilisation, brain fog / neuroinflammation, allergy, senolytic | Senolytic, blood pressure, immunity |
| Evidence grade | Preclinical / minimal | Clinical data |
| Family | Immune & inflammation | Senescence & senolytic |
| Key human source | Placebo-controlled crossover screen, IJERPH 2021 | BP meta-analysis, JAHA 2016 |
marks a row where the two differ. Evidence grades come from our evidence matrix, which grades each molecule on the human data for the use it is marketed for.
Our verdict
Luteolin is a flavone and quercetin a flavonol; structurally luteolin is quercetin with one hydroxyl removed, which is why the two get flattened together and precisely why they should not be. Quercetin has one genuinely supported human benefit of its own: a meta-analysis of seven randomised trials in 587 patients found systolic blood pressure fell about 3.0 mmHg and diastolic about 2.6 mmHg, strongest at 500 mg a day or more. Luteolin has no equivalent, because nearly every human trial gave people a blend — most often 700 mg of palmitoylethanolamide to 70 mg of luteolin, a ten-to-one ratio in favour of the other ingredient — and the one published placebo-controlled test of luteolin by itself was negative at both doses. Both are oversold as senolytics: quercetin's reputation there belongs to the dasatinib-plus-quercetin combination tested in open-label pilots of 9 to 14 people, and luteolin was weak even in the cell screen.
Luteolin fits if
Luteolin is the closer fit for someone whose real interest is mast-cell or neuroinflammatory biology, and who understands they are reading a mechanism rather than acting on a human result that does not yet exist.
Quercetin fits if
Quercetin is the better-evidenced of the two, and only narrowly — a low-risk dietary flavonoid taken at 500 mg or more for modest blood-pressure support, not for clearing senescent cells.