Removal of brackets

[20pictures]

I can't get this to work:

$db->execute_query("UPDATE mail_subscribers SET bounce_count='bounce_count + 1' WHERE email = '$email'"); 

I believe it is because the email values do not match:
email = nobody@mydomain.com
$email = <nobody@mydomain.com>

This is because $email was taken from a header by a MIMEdecoder.
How can I remove the brackets (tags)?

[20pictures]

I figured it out:

$emailx = trim($email, "<>");
$db->execute_query("UPDATE mail_subscribers SET bounce_count=bounce_count+1 WHERE email = '$emailx'");