The Sunlight Experiment

Compound Monograph

Ellagic Acid

Ellagic acid is a polyphenol found in many berries, pomegranate and nuts, widely studied as a dietary antioxidant.

Work in progress

Classification

Ellagic Acid is a polyphenol, part of the phenolics class. Antioxidant compounds built around one or more phenol rings — the flavonoids, tannins, phenolic acids, coumarins, and pigments behind much of a plant's protective chemistry.

Phenolics Tannins

Where Does It Come From? (9)

Ellagic Acid is a naturally occurring polyphenol, found in Raspberry, Pomegranate, Acacia and 6 other sources. It is well tolerated orally (low toxicity).

Acacia Acacia spp. Bearberry Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Camu-camu Myrciaria dubia Chanca Piedra Phyllanthus niruri PomegranateRaspberry Raspberry Leaf Rubus idaeus Walnut Juglans nigra Walnuts, strawberries and other berries

Research & Evidence

Ellagic acid is a polyphenol that occurs widely in berries, pomegranate, walnuts and other plant foods, both free and bound within larger tannins called ellagitannins. After ingestion, ellagitannins release ellagic acid, which gut bacteria further convert to urolithins. It is one of the more heavily studied dietary polyphenols for antioxidant and other bioactivities, though robust human outcome data remain limited and its absorption is relatively poor.

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibition

Ellagic acid is a moderately potent, MAO-B-preferring inhibitor, with a reported IC50 around 9.21 µM and a binding constant (Ki) near 7.5 µM against MAO-B, while inhibiting MAO-A only weakly 1Reference 1Oh et al. · 2021Acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase-B inhibitory activities by ellagic acid derivatives isolated from Castanopsis cuspidata var. sieboldiiView study →. (An eye-catching nanomolar figure for ellagic acid circulates from a separate paper, but those numbers are internally inconsistent and unreliable — the ~9 µM value is the trustworthy one.) See the natural MAO inhibitors guide for the wider picture.

Toxicity & Safety

As a common dietary polyphenol consumed routinely from fruits and nuts, ellagic acid is regarded as low risk at the levels obtained from food.

References

  1. Oh, J. M., Jang, H. J., Kang, M. G., Song, S., Kim, D. Y., Kim, J. H., Noh, J. I., Park, J. E., Park, D., Yee, S. T., & Kim, H. (2021). Acetylcholinesterase and monoamine oxidase-B inhibitory activities by ellagic acid derivatives isolated from Castanopsis cuspidata var. sieboldii. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 13953. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34230570/