Herbs and Grapefruit

[Enzyme11]

It is fairly well accepted that grapefruit/grapefruit juice affects the absorption and/or potency and clearance of some substances by deactivating certain enzymes. Bergamottin is known to be one grapefruit ingredient that inactivates at least the 34A subsystem of the Cytochrome P-450 enzyme system. Inactivating C-34A can lengthen the processing time for substances, such as some pharmaceuticals, whose metabolism depends on C-34A. The effect on breakdown time apparently depends in part on whether the enzyme systems in both the stomach and the liver are affected. Cruciferous vegetables are believed to have the opposite effect on C-34A. Setting aside prescription drugs, I'd like to know if anyone on the forum has noticed unusual results from herbs taken in the presence of grapefruit. The grapefruit effect is thought to last for the time required to regenerate the affected enzymes, perhaps about three days. Please chime in if you've noticed either a heightened or an ill feeling effect from herbs taken within about three days after ingesting a fair portion of grapefruit/grapefruit juice.

One implication of the grapefruit effect is that a person on a detox program might want to avoid grapefruit. As an aside, it's an interesting question of what happens after ingestion of grapefruit that is contaminated with a toxic substance whose metabolism depends on C-34A or other affected parts of the P-450 system. Poison with no immediate way to eliminate it? That leads one to wonder what metabolism pathways are involved with the pesticides used on conventional grapefruit, but that's another story.