cc1. Introduction
ARTICLE SECTIONS
In recent times, natural remedies have been considered as an important kind of approach for cures. Historically, medicinal plants have been utilized to both treat and stave off various illnesses. Natural products have been used for the treatment of different ailments since prehistoric times. According to a fossil study, the first or oldest evidence of the usage of plants as medicines dates back about 60 000 years. (1) This offers a fresh perspective on how the knowledge of traditional medicinal plants is operating and how it might be applied to treat emerging and lifestyle disorders. However, there is growing support for incorporating traditional herbal medicine knowledge into the investigation of new therapeutic agents. Various computational methods for bioprospecting in the postgenomic era can be used to investigate the rich medicinal plant history. (2) While many new medications have been created over the past 50 years utilizing high-throughput screening techniques and combinatorial chemistry, natural products and the chemicals produced from them have remained crucial elements in pharmacopoeias. Only a small number of the estimated 250 000–500 000 plant species currently in existence have been studied scientifically for bioactivities. (3) Therefore, there is a lot of potential for new scientific discoveries to come from plants and other natural products, which may be used to learn a lot about unique chemical structures and their innovative modes of action in the context of developing new drugs. (4) The three main factors driving this trend away from synthetic contemporary pharmaceuticals and toward a wider usage of nutraceuticals are (1) cost effectiveness, (2) safety, and (3) accessibility. (5)
Phytoestrogens are phenolic plant compounds that are nonsteroidal and naturally occur and, by virtue of their size and molecular makeup, mirror the steroid estrogens produced by vertebrates. They fall into two categories: flavonoids and nonflavonoids. Isoflavones, coumestans, and prenylflavonoids are examples of flavonoids, whereas lignans are examples of nonflavonoids. (6) Isoflavone phytoestrogens include genistein, daidzein (DDZ), glycitein, biochanin A, and formononetin. Humans primarily obtain isoflavones through their diets from soy and soy products, which are primarily composed of DDZ and genistein. They have estrogenic and/or antiestrogenic effects when ingested. Red clover’s methoxylated isoflavone formononetin is successfully transformed into DDZ in the human gastrointestinal tract; it serves as an indirect source of DDZ. Red clover extract based phytoestrogen dietary supplements are becoming more and more well-liked as an alternative therapy for the management of menopausal symptoms. Isoflavones are thought to be chemoprotective and can be used as an alternative therapy for a variety of hormonal illnesses, including menopausal symptoms, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, and numerous cancer types, including breast and prostate cancers. (7) DDZ (a phytoestrogen that belongs to the category of nonsteroidal estrogens), a nutraceutical ingredient so far, belongs to chemical class of isoflavones. It is a multitargeted herbal moiety that is used to address the challenges of a number of ailments, including osteoporosis, cancer, and inflammation, with antihemolytic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory effects. It has also protective properties against some illnesses like diseases of the cardiovascular system, diabetes, osteoporosis, and malignancy of the breast; these are connected by which estrogen control is regulated. Other biological functions not related to the ER (estrogen receptor) include safeguarding the skin and nerves, anti-inflammatory effect, anticancer function, and inhibition of oxidative damage. These positive outcomes are mostly attributable to immunological reaction modulation, oxygen free radical scavenging, proliferation inhibition, and other factors. (8) DDZ has a chemical structure (as shown in Figure 1) similar to that of mammalian estrogens and acts in two directions by either replacing or influencing the ER complex, estrogen receptor, and the hormone estrogen. It can be found in foods produced from soy, such as textured soy protein, soy flour, and soy protein isolates, as well as tofu, tempeh, and miso. Additionally, in supplementary flours made from wheat, rice and maize are fortified with soy flour. (9)
