Estrogenic activity of a naringinase-treated extract of Sophora japonica cultivated in Egypt

Abstract

The naringinase-treated methanol extract of Sophora japonica L. (Fabaceae) seeds showed potent estrogen agonist activity. Through bioassay-guided isolation of the main active constituents from the naringinase-treated methanol extract of S. japonica, the aglycones genistein and kaempferol were found to be the main phytoestrogens in the naringinase-treated extract. In addition, kaempferol was nearly equipotent to genistein as an estrogen agonist. Concerning the compounds isolated from the untreated methanol extract, sophoricoside showed weak estrogenic activity on ERβ only.

Keywords::

• Estrogenic activity
• ERα
• ERβ
• Sophora japonica
• yeast two-hybrid assay

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.