Sulforaphane (broccoli extract)

This product is sold in the trade as sulforaphane, but what actually ships in the drum is a broccoli seed extract standardised on glucoraphanin. The distinction is not pedantry, it is the whole specification. Glucoraphanin (CAS 21414-41-5, C12H23NO10S3, molecular weight 437.5) is a glucosinolate — a stable, polar, water-soluble thioglucoside that survives drying, milling and storage. Sulforaphane (C6H11NOS2, molecular weight 177.29; 1-isothiocyanato-4-(methylsulfinyl)butane; CAS 4478-93-7 for the racemate and 142825-10-3 for the (R)-(-) form that the plant makes) is the isothiocyanate released from it, and it is volatile, lipophilic and chemically reactive. Any supplier quoting a high free-sulforaphane figure in a dry powder should be asked how it is stabilised and what it assays at the end of shelf life. The conversion is enzymatic. Myrosinase — thioglucoside glucohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.147 — is held in separate cells from the glucosinolate in intact plant tissue. When the tissue is damaged, or when a dry blend is rehydrated in use, the enzyme cleaves the thioglucoside bond, glucose comes off and the aglycone rearranges to the isothiocyanate. Heat destroys the enzyme, which is why cooked broccoli behaves differently from raw, and heat also degrades sulforaphane itself, converting it to a thiourea derivative and to 1,2,4-trithiolane. Thovek therefore offers the extract three ways: standardised on glucoraphanin alone; as a myrosinase-active grade in which an enzyme source is co-supplied so that conversion happens at the point of use; and as a low-percentage stabilised sulforaphane grade for buyers whose label copy requires the isothiocyanate itself. The raw material is broccoli seed from Brassica oleracea var. italica, the Italica cultivar group of Brassica oleracea in the family Brassicaceae, because seed and sprout tissue carry the crop's highest glucoraphanin load. Commercially the material is straightforward: water and food-grade ethanol extraction, a declared carrier where one is used, and a light yellow to pale brown powder with a frank cruciferous smell that will carry through into an unflavoured finished product, so plan the flavour system around it. It is vegan and plant-derived with no bovine, porcine, marine or dairy input, and free of milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, gluten, peanut and tree nut. One allergen point deserves care. Broccoli is Brassica oleracea and is not one of the mustard species behind the 'mustard and products thereof' declaration under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II and Canadian labelling, so no mustard declaration arises from the broccoli itself — but broccoli seed and mustard seed are routinely cleaned, crushed and milled on the same equipment, so ask for the cross-contact statement and treat it as a supplier-qualification item rather than a formality. Every lot carries pesticide residues to EU MRLs, heavy metals, aflatoxins, residual solvents and a full microbiological panel. Classification is India ITC-HS 13021919 as a vegetable extract, not chapter 29.