Foods High in Flavonoids: USDA Database Values by Subclass

Foods high in flavonoids, according to USDA’s Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods (Release 3.3, 2018), include dark berries, red cabbage, fresh parsley, brewed tea and cocoa. USDA lists values for 26 flavonoid compounds in five subclasses, in milligrams per 100 grams of edible food, but publishes no totals. So the totals in this guide add up the compound values USDA lists for each food: raw elderberries come to 518.0 milligrams per 100 grams and raw highbush blueberries to 180.8. Each row keeps USDA’s NDB number so you can trace it, and the flavonoid foods list below shows every subclass separately.

Peptide Labs does not sell flavonoid products. This article is general nutrition information, not medical advice.

How USDA measures flavonoids in food

Release 3.3 of the USDA database, prepared by Haytowitz, Wu and Bhagwat at USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory, collects published laboratory values for 26 common flavonoids. USDA accepted only methods that separate individual compounds well, such as high-performance liquid chromatography, and left out values reported only as total flavonoids or subclass totals, because its goal was to collect values for specific compounds.

USDA explains that most flavonoids in food are bound to sugars as glycosides, except the flavan-3-ols, and that its scientists converted glycoside values into the parent compounds so values compare across the database. Two more USDA rules matter when you read the tables: a zero is a true zero, below the limit of detection, while a missing value means only that data were unavailable. That is why a blank subclass below reads no data rather than a zero.

The five flavonoid subclasses

• Anthocyanidins: cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin, pelargonidin, peonidin and petunidin. In USDA data they dominate dark berries, the red kind of cabbage, eggplant and radishes.
• Flavan-3-ols: catechin, gallocatechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin and their gallate forms, plus the theaflavins and thearubigins of tea. In USDA data they dominate cocoa and brewed tea.
• Flavanones: eriodictyol, hesperetin and naringenin. In USDA data they dominate grapefruit, lemons, limes and oranges.
• Flavones: apigenin and luteolin. In USDA data fresh parsley, thyme and celery owe most of their flavonoids to this subclass.
• Flavonols: isorhamnetin, kaempferol, myricetin and quercetin. In USDA data they dominate capers, dill, kale and red onions; our foods high in quercetin list ranks that one compound.

Foods high in flavonoids: fruits and vegetables

The table ranks raw fruits and vegetables from USDA’s Release 3.3 file by the sum of their listed values. All figures are milligrams per 100 grams of edible portion, taken from USDA’s flavonoid data file and added up by us. It is a selection of widely sold foods: the USDA file also lists less common items, among them service (Saskatoon) berries, lovage leaves, golden currants, kumquats and native Australian fruits, as well as juice concentrates and fruit powders, which are left out here.

Black raspberries and wild blueberries have values for anthocyanidins only, so their sums may be incomplete; USDA notes that researchers rarely analyze every subclass in one study. Guides for many of these foods: elderberries, aronia berries, bilberries, blueberries, parsley, red cabbage, radicchio, currants, blackberries, cranberries, kale, eggplant, onions, raspberries, grapefruit and lemons.

Tea, cocoa, herbs and capers

These foods are eaten or brewed in smaller amounts, so their USDA values per 100 grams need care. USDA standardized every tea value to a 1 percent infusion, 1 gram of tea leaves in 100 milliliters of boiling water, so the tea rows describe the brewed drink. Dried herbs carry some of the highest numbers per 100 grams in the USDA file, topped only by raw cacao beans, the raw material of cocoa, which have the highest sum in the whole USDA file.

Our guides to green tea, black tea, oolong tea, dark chocolate, cacao nibs, oregano, peppermint and thyme cover those foods beyond flavonoids.

Flavonoid rich foods among everyday produce

Many familiar foods sit lower in the USDA file but still carry measurable amounts. In USDA data, raw oranges (all commercial varieties) sum to 43.5 milligrams per 100 grams, mostly flavanones; raw strawberries to 33.5; raw apples with peel to 15.1; raw broccoli to 12.0; and raw spinach to 11.4. Raw black beans list 44.5 in USDA data, all anthocyanidins. Guides: oranges, strawberries, apples, broccoli, and spinach.

Why flavonoid values vary

USDA states that considerable variation was observed in the flavonoid content of specific foods. Its documentation explains that plants often produce flavonoids in response to environmental stresses such as diseases, insects, climate and ultraviolet radiation, and that cultivar, growing location, farming practices, processing, storage and preparation add more variation.

USDA also warns against comparing raw and cooked forms of one food. Its file lists boiled red cabbage at 39.4 milligrams per 100 grams against 210.7 for raw, but USDA says a lower cooked value does not necessarily mean cooking reduced the flavonoid, because the two values may come from different sources; the comparison is valid only when paired raw and cooked samples are analyzed.

What the USDA database leaves out

USDA leaves isoflavones, the soy compounds, to a separate USDA-Iowa State University database, and proanthocyanidins to another separate database, so neither group is counted in the sums above. Flavonoids are also only one group of polyphenols; our foods high in polyphenols guide covers the wider family, and our foods high in antioxidants guide covers a different set of measurements. USDA also notes that absorption of flavonoids depends on the sugar attached to each compound, so milligrams in food are not the same as amounts absorbed. For fruit ranked on a different scale entirely, see our fruit ranking list. Flavonoids in food are reported here as composition data only.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Last reviewed October 2026.

Related guides: Low Glycemic Fruits: GI Values From the International Tables, Foods High in Polyphenols: Classes, Sources and USDA Data, Foods High in Quercetin: USDA Flavonoid Database Values, Foods High in Antioxidants: USDA Chart and What the Science Says.