Assessment of dietary phytoestrogen intake via plant-derived foods in China

Abstract

The potential influence of dietary phytoestrogen exposure on human health during different life phases including early childhood is a matter of scientific debate. In order to improve the risk–benefit assessment of exposure to dietary phytoestrogen, reliable and age-stratified exposure data are desirable. For contributing to the database on phytoestrogen exposure, in the present study plant-derived foods from the Chinese market were analysed by LC-MS/MS for their contents of phytoestrogens, including daidzein, genistein, secoisolariciresinol, glycitein and coumestrol. The analytical data showed the presence of phytoestrogens in a concentration range of less than 0.1 to about 50 μg g⁻¹. Dietary intake was assessed on the basis of average food intake data obtained from interviewing 1000 randomly selected people with the help of food frequency questionnaires. Based on the overall population sampled, the average total phytoestrogen intake was estimated at 232 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹. Genistein contributed to about 66%, secoisolariciresinol and glycitein to about 10% each, and daidzein to about 7% of the overall intake. Coumestrol was present only in trace amounts. Age-related exposure assessment indicated that pre-pubertal children (aged 0–14 years) were exposed at the highest level with an average total phytoestrogen intake of 621 μg kg⁻¹ day⁻¹. The substantially higher average exposure of children as compared with adults should trigger further research into the potential health effects of early life exposure to phytoestrogen.

Keywords:

• phytoestrogens
• dietary intake assessment
• LC-MS/MS
• genistein

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China under a grant from the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China [grant number 2010DFA31780]; and by a grant from the Sino-German Center of National Natural Science Foundation of China under the Joint Sino-German Research Project [grant number GZ 731].