Ingested quercetin but not rutin increases accumulation of hepatic beta-carotene in BALB/c mice

Beta-carotene is a carotenoid with a range of reported health benefits besides vitamin A activity. If the enzymatic conversion of beta-carotene to retinal is suppressed in the digestive tract, residual beta-carotene that reaches the tissues increases. We evaluated the function of quercetin and rutin (quercetin-3-rutinoside) to increase the accumulation of beta-carotene in vitro and in vivo in BALB/c mice. When the conversion of beta-carotene by a preparation of the murine small intestine was measured in vitro, the addition of quercetin or rutin considerably inhibited the conversion. When the levels of hepatic beta-carotene and retinoids were measured among three groups of mice fed a diet supplemented with beta-carotene plus quercetin or rutin or beta-carotene alone (four to six mice per group), quercetin increased the level of beta-carotene and decreased the level of retinol, whereas rutin did not. These results demonstrate that quercetin can suppress the conversion of beta-carotene which develops in the cytosol of small intestinal epithelial cells, and that rutin whose rutinose-moiety prevents being absorbed in the small intestine cannot suppress the conversion in vivo. This study offers a novel insight into the interaction between flavonoids and carotenoids with respect to the health benefits from the latter.