• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.874-883
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• 2018

Osteoporosis is a disease that increases the risk of fracture by decreasing the mass and strength of bone. It is caused by imbalance of osteoclast bone formation and osteoclast bone resorption. Bone formation by osteoblast is activated via bone morphogenetic proteins and runt-related transcription factor 2. $Wnt/{\beta}-catenin$ signaling and bone resorption by osteoclast are initiated by the binding of receptor activator of nuclear $factor-{\kappa}B$ ligand and receptor activator of nuclear $factor-{\kappa}B$. Menopausal women are at risk for many diseases due to hormonal imbalances, and osteoporosis is the most common metabolic disorder in 30% of postmenopausal women. When estrogen is deficient, bone resorption of osteoclasts is promoted, and the risk of osteoporosis especially increases in postmenopausal women. Hormone replacement therapy has been widely used to relieve or treat the symptoms of menopausal syndrome. However, long-term administration of hormone therapy has been associated with a high risk of side effects, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and uterine cancer. Recently, phytochemicals have been actively studied as a phytoestrogen, which has an estrogen-like activity to cope with symptoms of menopausal syndrome. Therefore, in this review, we investigated the differentiation mechanism of osteoblast and osteoclast and the role of estrogen and phytoestrogen in bone metabolism in relation to previous studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.743-749
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• 2005

Estrogen is known to play an important role in maintaining bone mass, since the concentration of serum estrogen decrease after menopause and the estrogen deficiency results in bone loss. Phytoestrogens are plant compounds with estrogen-like biological activity, In this study, to investigate the bioactivities of phytoestrogen, which act on bone metabolism, we examined the effect of selected food-borne phytoestrogens (genistein, daidzein and resveratrol) on osteoblast proliferation and IGF-I production using MC3T3-El cells, a mouse calvaria osteoblast-like cell line. Cells were cultured in a serum free medium for 48 hr in the presence of genistein $(10^{-5}\;M)$, daidzein $(10^{-5}\;M)$ and resveratrol $(10^{-5}\;M)$. The effects of genistein, daidzein and resveratrol on the cell proliferation and growth were evaluated by total cell numbers, MTS assay and cell migration assay. Their effect was compared with the $17\beta-estradiol$. Genistein, daidzein and resveratrol exhibited stimulatory effects on the growth of MC3T3-El cells, and the most pronounced effect was shown with daidzein. In addition, these phytoestrogen increased alkaline phosphatase activity of MC3T3-El cells. These effects were similar to that of $17\beta-estradiol$ effects. Moreover, treatment with genistein, daidzein and resveratrol increased production of insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in conditioned media, indicating that the growth promoting effects of these phytoestrogen were related to the changes in production of IGF-I by MC3T3-El cells. These results show that genistein, daidzein and resveratrol have a stimulatory effect on osteoblast function, and that these findings in a cell model may prove relevant to protecting against the loss of bone mass and the development of osteoporosis in human subjects.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.229-234
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• 2013

Phytoestrogens exist in edible compounds commonly found in fruits or plants. For long times, phytoestrogens have been used for therapeutic treatments against human diseases, and they can be promising ingredients for future pharmacological industries. Kaempferol is a yellow compound found in grapes, broccoli and yellow fruits, which is one of flavonoid as phytoestrogens. Kaempferol has been suggested to have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. In past decades, many studies have been performed to examine anti-toxicological role(s) of kaempferol against human cancers. It has been shown that kaempferol may be involved in the regulations of cell cycle, metastasis, angiogenesis and apoptosis in various cancer cell types. Among them, there have been a few of the studies to examine a relationship between kaempferol and apoptosis. Thus, in this review, we highlight the effect(s) of kaempferol on the regulation of apoptosis in diverse cancer cell models. This could be a forecast in regard to use of kaempferol as promising treatment against human diseases.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.102-106
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• 2006

The phytoestrogens including isoflavones (genistein, daidzein, biochanin A, formononetin, and glycitein), coumestrol, and lignans (secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol, and anhydrosecoisolariciresinol) were quantified in edible sea vegetables from Korea. Sea vegetable samples were collected based on domestic consumption data. After hydrolysis of phytoestrogen glycosides in prepared samples, aglycones of phytoestrogens were extracted with diethyl ether and analyzed with isotope dilution gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in selected ion monitoring mode (ID-GC-MS-SIM). Total samples included 19 samples representing eight species. Most of the samples showed rather low concentrations, ranging from not determinated to $79.2\;{\mu}g/kg$ for isoflavones and from 106.4 to $694.8\;{\mu}g/kg$ for lignans. The daily intake of phytoestrogen from sea vegetables, estimated from the present data and domestic consumption data, was about $0.13\;{\mu}g/day$ for isoflavones and $2.0\;{\mu}g/day$ for lignans. When we compared these results with those from legumes, sea vegetables would not be considered the major source of phytoestrogens in the Korean diet.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.217-220
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• 2016

Phytoestrogens are one of quasi-estrogens which are not generated within the endocrine system, but consumed by intaking phytoestrogenic plants. Phytoestrogens, also called as "dietary estrogens", are various botanic chemical compound groups naturally occurring nonsteroidal plant compounds of spontaneous generation. Due to their structural similarities to estrogone, they may provide desirable health benefits for reducing the menopausal symptoms. In this paper, various phytoestrogens were extracted from sophora root, pomegranate and kudzu by ultrasonic extraction process. In this study, the amount of extracted phytoestrogens at various ultrasonic power strengths and extraction times were compared, which could be used as basic data in the study of biology and chemistry related to natural products.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.118-125
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• 2021

Leguminosae plants are known for its phytoestrogen constituents which play a major role in the prevention of osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease. In this study, the estrogenic activity of 158 samples from 58 species, 3 subspecies and 10 varieties of Leguminosae plants growing in Korea was evaluated. An estrogen, 17β-estradiol was used as a reference compound, and the potency of each sample was expressed in relative efficacy (%) compared to that of the reference by a reporter gene assay using MCF-7 cells. As results, the estrogenic activity of methanolic extracts of Phaseolus vulgaris var. humilis, Sophora flavescens, Lespedeza × robusta, Indigofera pseudotinctoria, Maackia amurensis, Glycine soja, Wisteria floribunda, Robinia pseudoacacia, Astragalus sinicus, Pueraria lobata, Lespedeza maximowiczii var. tomentella, Trifolium repens and Crotalaria sessiliflora showed similar to or higher at 100 ㎍/ml than the positive control at 10 nM. These findings can be a potential evidence for developing estrogen alternatives resolving various types of menopause symptoms with information on proper harvest season and usage plant part. To the best of our knowledge, the estrogenic activity of Lespedeza × robusta, Indigofera pseudotinctoria, Wisteria floribunda, Robinia pseudoacacia and Lespedeza maximowiczii var. tomentella is reported for the first time in this study.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.936-941
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• 2000

To assess functional properties of chungkugjang (CK), a traditional Korean soyfood, fermented with black beans at $42^{\circ}C$ for 72 hrs, some biological activities of methanol extract of CK and the changes in phytoesterogen (daidzein, genistein) contents during fermentation were investigated. The methanol extract of CK (MEC) prepared with soybean had no or a little antibacterial activity. MEC prepared with black bean inhibited the growth of all bacteria tested, and MEC of small black bean was higher in antibacterial activity than that of large black bean. Hydrogen-donating activities of MEC of large and small black bean were 76.4 and 75.5%, respectively, which were higher than that of soybean being 67.3%. Nitrite-scavenging activity was found to be above 90% in all MECs tested as compared with control group. MEC showed strong antioxidant activities against both peroxidation of linoleic acid and $H_{2}O_{2}-FeSO_{4}-induced$ peroxidation of rat liver homogenate. The antioxidant activities were high in the order of small black bean, large black bean and soybean. Contents of genistein and daidzein were gradually increased during fermentation of CK. The isoflavones were higher in black bean CK than in soybean CK and higher in large black bean CK than in small black bean CK. In black beans genistein content was about twice as much of daidzein.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.83-87
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• 2004

This research was designed to investigate the effects of Estromon including FGF271 (Female Growth Factor 271) which was developed as a phytoestrogen for post- and pre-menopausal syndrome (PMS). The oral administration of two capsules of Estromon twice a day for 3 months significantly improved PMS (Post-/Premenopausal Syndrome) about 5 times more than placebo group (OR=5.04, 95% C.1. 1.40-18.14). In the group of 24 patients having taken Estromon, the concentration of alkaline phosphatase asn the bone marker decreased by -9.3${\pm}$9.5 IU/L after 3 months with a statistic significance. Since the concentration of osteocalcin as the other bone marker also decreased in more patients in Estromon group than in placebo group, the bone density might be expected to be improved in long-term treatment. Serum human growth hormone level increased in 17 out of 24 patients. Triglycerides decreased by -8.0${\pm}$40 (mg%) after 1 month and by -4.4${\pm}$36 (mg%) after 3 months in Estomon group while triglycerides increased in both cases in placebo group (p.0.01). Therefore, PMS patients might benefit from Estromon as a phytoestrogen supplement without any serious side effects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.40 no.8
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• pp.1063-1072
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• 2011

This study analyzed the functional components and antioxidant activities of pomegranate juice and pomegranate husk, endocarp and seed extracts by comparing Korean and Iranian pomegranates. Korean pomegranate husk (KPH) had the highest total polyphenol content among the pomegranate extracts, and total phytoestrogen content was highest in Korean pomegranate endocarp (KPE). Iranian pomegranate endocarp (IPE) and Iranian pomegranate husk (IPH) showed the highest flavonoid levels. Overall, Korean pomegranate had more functional components than those in Iranian pomegranate. KPE had the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity and superoxide dismutase like-activity among all of the extracts, and KPH had the highest nitrite scavenging activity. IPE showed the highest superoxide anion scavenging activity. The ABTS$^+$ assay also indicated that IPH had the highest antioxidant activities. This study also showed that the more total polyphenols, flavonols, and phytoestrogens the pomegranate contained, the higher antioxidant activities. A positive correlation was observed between total polyphenol, flavonol and phytoestrogen levels and antioxidant activities. Korean pomegranates contained more functional components and had higher antioxidant activity than those of Iranian pomegranates. Additionally, pomegranate endocarp and seed extracts were better than pomegranate juice in terms of functional components and antioxidant activity. These results suggest that pomegranate husk, endocarp and seed extracts as well as pomegranate juice may have value as natural antioxidants with their high quality functional components and antioxidant activity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.9-13
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• 2001

Genistein, a natural isoflavonoid phytoestrogen, is a strong inhibitor of protein tyrosine kinase and DNA topoisomerase II activities. Genistein has been shown to have anticancer proliferation, differentiation and chemopreventive effects. In the present study, we have addressed the mechanism of action by which genistein suppressed the proliferation of p53-null human prostate carcinoma cells.(omitted)