Sulforaphane Activation

Many of my blog topics are the result of some interesting question. The question that led to this blog was about myrosinase and sulforaphane and wondering if they needed myrosinase in the sulforaphane formula to help with a conversion. I had to do some digging as it seemed like a lot of misinformation was being duplicated by other articles so I needed to address that.

Sulforaphane is Already the Active Form

Before we talk about that particular question, we need to review sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is a sulfur-rich compound found especially in vegetables like broccoli, bok choy and cabbage. In its native state, it is found mostly in an inactive form glucoraphanin. The active sulforaphane results from glucoraphanin contacting myrosinase. Myrosinase is a family of enzymes the help in the defense response of plants.

As a plant is cut, chopped or chewed, the myrosinase is released and the glucoraphanin is converted to sulforaphane.

Don't Overcook Your Veggies

Overcooking destroys most of the sulforaphane. Light steaming has been suggested by many researchers to optimize digestibility of the vegetable and keep sulforaphane and other beneficial compounds from being denatured.

What kind of benefits have we seen from sulforaphane? Research indicates possible help with its anti-cancer properties, heart protection, blood sugar stabilizing, brain protection and help with gut health.

Help Lower Cancer Rates

For example, one study shows that people in populations that eat more broccoli and like foods have a lower cancer rate. Much of the research on heart disease has been done in rodents but since cruciferous vegetables seem to have anti-inflammatory properties, it can't hurt to add these vegetables to your regimen. Cruciferous vegetables have been shown to help lower blood sugar levels.

Your Gut Loves Soluble Fiber

Plus fiber is the one thing that experts on the microbiome can agree on. That is to say that people studying the microbiome come to different conclusions about what to do to keep the gut healthy. The one thing they all agree on is that a healthy gut likes lots of soluble fiber. Fiber helps keep your gut bacteria and other microorganisms in a healthy state and that helps the gut lining be at its best.

Myrosinase Not Necessary To Activate Sulforaphane

So back to our question about myrosinase as a supplement along with sulforaphane. Some references state improperly that sulforaphane is activated by myrosinase. It is more correct to say that the precursor to sulforaphane, glucoraphanin is activated by contact with myrosinase to get the active compound sulforaphane. When you supplement with sulforaphane, you are already giving your body the active form. Also the human microbiome produces myrosinase anyway so you shouldn't need to supplement it even if you were getting glucoraphanin in your supplement or food.

Studies Don't Mention Myrosinase Either

Consider that sulforaphane is listed in over 2000 studies on pubmed without much mention of myrosinase in that process. Sometimes the studies are using supplements and sometimes broccoli itself.

Our recommendation? Add cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, cabbage and bok choy to your diet routine. If you aren't getting enough of these for whatever reason, you can supplement with products like NuMedica BrocColinate to give your body that sulforaphane boost.