Phytoestrogens: food or drug?

Bacciottini, Lucia and Falchetti, Alberto and Pampaloni, Barbara and Bartolini, Elisa and Carossino, Anna Maria and Brandi, Maria Luisa (2007) Phytoestrogens: food or drug? Clinical cases in mineral and bone metabolism, 4 (2). pp. 123-130. ISSN 1971-3266

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Abstract

Within the past several years, the relation between diet and health has been accepted by the mainstream nutrition community and in this connection interest in the physiological role of bioactive compounds present in plants has dramatically increased over the last decade. The phytoestrogens are bioactive molecules present as nutritional constituents of widely consumed vegetables. Their name derives from the fact that they are able to bind to estrogen receptors and to induce an estrogenic/antiestrogenic response in target tissues. Natural estrogens are involved in a multiplicity of programmed events in target tissues as uterus, breast, pituitary gland and hormone responsive tumors. Phytoestrogens are present in many human foodstuffs including fruits (plum, pear, apple grape berries, ?), vegetables (beans, sprouts, cabbage, spinach, soybeans, grains, hops, garlic, onion,?), wine, tea, and they have been identified in a number of botanical dietary supplements. They include a wide variety of structurally different compounds such as isoflavones, mainly found in soy, lignans found in grains, stilbenes found in the skin of grapes. Other less investigated compounds include flavones, flavans, isoflavanes and coumestans. The estrogenic or antiestrogenic activity of any chemicals depends on the ability of the compound to interact with the ERs (ER?, ER?). This article reported the knowledge about the activity of phytoestrogens from a pharmacological point of view for their estrogenicity or antiestrogenicity.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Phytoestrogens, nutrition, bioactive compounds, soy, bone health
Subjects:	600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 612 Fisiologia umana > 612.7 Sistema muscoloscheletrico, tegumento
Depositing User:	Danilo Dezzi
Date Deposited:	20 Jan 2014 10:01
Last Modified:	20 Jan 2014 10:01
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/4935

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