Nutrition Diet: What Fruit Has the Highest Quercetin?

October 6, 2025 •

5 min read

While the average person gets a relatively low daily dose of this powerful antioxidant, understanding what fruit has the highest quercetin can significantly increase your intake. These potent flavonoids offer numerous health benefits, such as reducing inflammation and supporting immunity, making them a crucial part of a nutritious diet.

Quick Summary

This guide reveals the top fruit sources of the antioxidant quercetin, explaining that capers, often used as a fruit, are the most concentrated source. It also details other high-quercetin fruits like berries, apples, and cherries while discussing factors affecting content and absorption.

Key Points

Highest Concentrated Source: Capers, botanically a fruit, are the most concentrated food source of quercetin by a large margin.
Top Berry Sources: Whortleberries, lingonberries, and cranberries are among the berries with the highest quercetin content.
Don't Peel the Apple: A significant amount of an apple's quercetin is in its skin, so eating the peel is crucial for maximum intake.
Enhance Absorption: To increase your body's absorption of quercetin, consume it with vitamin C or healthy fats.
Cultivation Matters: Organic produce may sometimes have higher quercetin levels than conventionally grown produce.
Broaden Your Diet: While focusing on high-quercetin fruits is effective, including other sources like onions, kale, and tea provides a wider spectrum of nutrients.

What is Quercetin?

Quercetin is a powerful plant pigment, or flavonoid, found in many fruits, vegetables, and grains. As a potent antioxidant, it helps protect your body from free radical damage, which is a major contributor to chronic diseases and the aging process. It also has documented anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-allergic properties. Incorporating foods rich in this compound can be a simple and delicious way to bolster your overall health and wellness.

The Surprising Top Fruit Source: Capers

Most people consider capers to be a vegetable or seasoning, but these pickled or brined flower buds are, botanically speaking, a fruit. And they are by far the most concentrated food source of quercetin. With an exceptionally high concentration, adding even small amounts of capers to your diet can provide a significant quercetin boost. They lend a distinct salty, tangy flavor to dishes and can be incorporated in various ways:

Mixed into tuna or salmon salads
Sprinkled over roasted fish or poultry
Added to pasta sauces, dressings, and dips
Included on an antipasto platter

Leading Fruit Contenders for High Quercetin

While capers take the top spot for concentration, several other common and flavorful fruits are excellent sources of quercetin, making it easy to incorporate them into your daily diet.

Berries

Berries are well-known for their antioxidant content, and many varieties contain notable amounts of quercetin. Research indicates that certain types of berries, particularly those with deep colors, are packed with this beneficial flavonoid.

Whortleberry: This berry contains some of the highest concentrations of quercetin.
Lingonberry: Another top-tier berry source, rich in flavonoids.
Cranberry: Popular for its tart flavor and high quercetin content.
Blueberry: A common superfood, offering a healthy dose of quercetin in each serving.
Elderberry: Found in teas and syrups, elderberry is another solid source.

Apples

An apple a day really can help keep the doctor away, and quercetin is a major reason why. However, how you eat your apple matters. A significant amount of the quercetin is concentrated in the peel. To maximize your intake, eat the whole apple, and choose red or yellow varieties, which tend to be richer in this pigment.

Grapes and Cherries

Dark-colored fruits often signal a high concentration of polyphenols like quercetin. Red and purple grapes and dark cherries are excellent additions to your diet for this reason. Red wine, made from red grapes, also contains quercetin, though the health benefits of grapes themselves are more direct.

Other Notable Fruits

Beyond the berries and tree fruits, some other fruits contribute to your quercetin intake:

Citrus Fruits: Oranges and grapefruits contain quercetin, especially when consumed whole.
Tomatoes: Specifically, organically grown tomatoes or cherry tomatoes have higher quercetin levels due to a higher skin-to-flesh ratio.

Comparing Quercetin Content in Key Fruits

To provide a clearer picture of the different sources, here is a comparison table showing quercetin content for selected fruits. The values can vary based on factors like variety, ripeness, and cultivation methods.


Food Source	Estimated Quercetin Content (per 100g)	Notes
Capers (preserved)	173-234 mg	Extremely high concentration due to processing.
Whortleberry	~158 mg/kg	Very high quercetin content for a berry.
Lingonberry	~146 mg/kg	Another excellent source from the berry family.
Cranberries	Up to 22 mg	Dried or fresh berries are a strong source.
Blueberries	7-14 mg	A popular and easy-to-find source.
Apples (with skin)	4.9-5 mg	Content can vary by variety; most in the skin.
Red Grapes	~3 mg	Dark varieties tend to have higher levels.
Cherries	Variable, but notable	A delicious source of antioxidants.
Tomatoes	Variable	Organic and cherry tomatoes offer more.

Maximizing Quercetin Intake and Absorption

Simply eating quercetin-rich foods is a great start, but you can take steps to get the most out of them. Quercetin has relatively low bioavailability, meaning the body doesn't absorb it very efficiently on its own. However, you can enhance absorption through dietary combinations.

Combine with Healthy Fats and Vitamin C

Eating quercetin-rich foods with healthy fats can improve absorption. For example, enjoying a handful of berries with nuts or adding quercetin-rich vegetables like kale to a salad with olive oil can help. Additionally, consuming quercetin with vitamin C appears to have a synergistic effect, enhancing its efficacy and absorption. Many fruits high in quercetin, such as berries and citrus, are naturally rich in vitamin C, making this an easy combination to achieve.

Consider Cooking Methods

Preparation can affect flavonoid levels. While some cooking methods can reduce quercetin, others, like quick sautéing or steaming, may preserve it better than boiling. Organic produce may also have higher concentrations.

Conclusion

While a variety of fruits contain quercetin, capers are the clear winner in terms of concentration. For more common, everyday options, berries like whortleberry and cranberry, alongside apples eaten with their skin, and dark grapes are excellent choices. A well-rounded diet incorporating these fruits, along with other high-quercetin foods like onions and leafy greens, can help you maximize your intake of this powerful antioxidant. To further boost the benefits, pair these foods with healthy fats or vitamin C, as nature often intended. For additional information, consult the National Institutes of Health research database on flavonoids and health.(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9737775/)

Nutrition Diet and Quercetin: A Holistic Approach

By focusing on whole foods and understanding the factors that influence nutrient content, you can create a diet that is not only rich in quercetin but also provides a wide range of synergistic nutrients. Moving beyond just one fruit and embracing variety is key to unlocking the full potential of plant-based nutrition for overall wellness.

Factors Influencing Quercetin Levels

It's important to recognize that the quercetin content in food isn't static. Several variables play a role:

Cultivar: Different varieties of the same fruit can have significantly different flavonoid levels. For example, older apple varieties may be richer in quercetin than modern ones.
Growth Conditions: Sunlight exposure during growth can influence quercetin production. Also, studies suggest organically grown produce, such as tomatoes, may contain higher concentrations of certain compounds.
Processing: While preserving capers concentrates quercetin, processing like peeling, prolonged cooking, and storage can cause losses.

Ultimately, a dietary focus on a colorful and diverse array of plant-based foods is the most reliable strategy for consistent and optimal quercetin intake.

Frequently Asked Questions

The single most concentrated food source of quercetin is the caper, a flower bud often used as a fruit in cooking. However, for a more commonly consumed option, berries like whortleberry, lingonberry, and cranberry are excellent choices.

Yes, peeling an apple drastically reduces its quercetin content. The highest concentration of this flavonoid is found in the skin, so eating the whole, unpeeled apple is recommended to maximize intake.

To enhance quercetin absorption, pair it with foods containing vitamin C or healthy fats. This is why consuming berries (rich in both) or adding olive oil to a salad with quercetin-rich vegetables is effective.

Some research indicates that organic versions of certain produce, like tomatoes, can have higher concentrations of quercetin compared to conventionally grown varieties. However, content can also depend on the specific cultivar and ripeness.

Apples with their skin on, berries like blueberries and cranberries, and dark grapes are all easily accessible and can be incorporated into your daily diet through snacks, smoothies, or toppings.

The effect of cooking varies. Prolonged boiling can lead to significant loss of flavonoids, while quicker cooking methods like steaming or light sautéing may retain more. Raw consumption is often best for preserving maximum content.

Excellent non-fruit sources of quercetin include red onions, leafy greens like kale and spinach, broccoli, and teas (especially green tea). Incorporating these into your diet offers a diverse array of quercetin-rich foods.