There’s some pretty interesting information in the PHP source for the FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL flag.
void php_filter_validate_email(PHP_INPUT_FILTER_PARAM_DECL) /* {{{ */
{
/*
* The regex below is based on a regex by Michael Rushton.
* However, it is not identical. I changed it to only consider routeable
* addresses as valid. Michael's regex considers a@b a valid address
* which conflicts with section 2.3.5 of RFC 5321 which states that:
*
* Only resolvable, fully-qualified domain names (FQDNs) are permitted
* when domain names are used in SMTP. In other words, names that can
* be resolved to MX RRs or address (i.e., A or AAAA) RRs (as discussed
* in Section 5) are permitted, as are CNAME RRs whose targets can be
* resolved, in turn, to MX or address RRs. Local nicknames or
* unqualified names MUST NOT be used.
*
* This regex does not handle comments and folding whitespace. While
* this is technically valid in an email address, these parts aren't
* actually part of the address itself.
*
* Michael's regex carries this copyright:
*
* Copyright © Michael Rushton 2009-10
* http://squiloople.com/
* Feel free to use and redistribute this code. But please keep this copyright notice.
*
*/
const char regexp[] = "/^(?!(?:(?:\\\\x22?\\\\x5C[\\\\x00-\\\\x7E]\\\\x22?)|(?:\\\\x22?[^\\\\x5C\\\\x22]\\\\x22?)){255,})(?!(?:(?:\\\\x22?\\\\x5C[\\\\x00-\\\\x7E]\\\\x22?)|(?:\\\\x22?[^\\\\x5C\\\\x22]\\\\x22?)){65,}@)(?:(?:[\\\\x21\\\\x23-\\\\x27\\\\x2A\\\\x2B\\\\x2D\\\\x2F-\\\\x39\\\\x3D\\\\x3F\\\\x5E-\\\\x7E]+)|(?:\\\\x22(?:[\\\\x01-\\\\x08\\\\x0B\\\\x0C\\\\x0E-\\\\x1F\\\\x21\\\\x23-\\\\x5B\\\\x5D-\\\\x7F]|(?:\\\\x5C[\\\\x00-\\\\x7F]))*\\\\x22))(?:\\\\.(?:(?:[\\\\x21\\\\x23-\\\\x27\\\\x2A\\\\x2B\\\\x2D\\\\x2F-\\\\x39\\\\x3D\\\\x3F\\\\x5E-\\\\x7E]+)|(?:\\\\x22(?:[\\\\x01-\\\\x08\\\\x0B\\\\x0C\\\\x0E-\\\\x1F\\\\x21\\\\x23-\\\\x5B\\\\x5D-\\\\x7F]|(?:\\\\x5C[\\\\x00-\\\\x7F]))*\\\\x22)))*@(?:(?:(?!.*[^.]{64,})(?:(?:(?:xn--)?[a-z0-9]+(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*\\\\.){1,126}){1,}(?:(?:[a-z][a-z0-9]*)|(?:(?:xn--)[a-z0-9]+))(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*)|(?:\\\\[(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){7})|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9][:\\\\]]){7,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?)))|(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){5}:)|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9]:){5,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3}:)?)))?(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))(?:\\\\.(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))){3}))\\\\]))$/iD";
pcre *re = NULL;
pcre_extra *pcre_extra = NULL;
int preg_options = 0;
int ovector[150]; /* Needs to be a multiple of 3 */
int matches;
/* The maximum length of an e-mail address is 320 octets, per RFC 2821. */
if (Z_STRLEN_P(value) > 320) {
RETURN_VALIDATION_FAILED
}
re = pcre_get_compiled_regex((char *)regexp, &pcre_extra, &preg_options TSRMLS_CC);
if (!re) {
RETURN_VALIDATION_FAILED
}
matches = pcre_exec(re, NULL, Z_STRVAL_P(value), Z_STRLEN_P(value), 0, 0, ovector, 3);
/* 0 means that the vector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets */
if (matches < 0) {
RETURN_VALIDATION_FAILED
}
}
/* }}} */
It might be worth knowing it’s limitations/coverage. 
