背景:苜蓿和红三叶草是最普遍和最重要的多年生豆类,主要用作牲畜的优质饲料。苜蓿和红三叶草,以及豆科的其他一些植物,是植物雌激素的丰富天然来源,具有雌激素活性的非甾体化合物,其在预防和治疗许多疾病中的有益作用已在许多科学研究中得到证明。
目标:如今,世界市场上有各种草药制剂,其用途不断增加,以及消费者对用作活性物质来源的植物物种的无害环境和健康安全生产的需求日益增长。由于它们的广泛分布,有机育种的可能性,在大多数欧盟国家,转基因作物的表面积也显著增加,苜蓿和红三叶草已成为植物雌激素的更有趣的替代来源。这些牧草豆科植物中最常见的植物雌激素是染料木素,Daidzein,糖素,福蒙素,biochanin,coumestrol,山奈酚和芹菜素.这些物质的含量受到许多因素的显著影响,包括基因型,环境,生产技术,植物成熟期,和单独的植物部分。
结论:现有证据表明,牧草豆类代表了促进健康的植物雌激素的高前景来源。由于许多有利的功能,它们可以在制药等不同行业找到商业应用,营养食品,化妆品,和农业。
BACKGROUND: Alfalfa and red clover are the most widespread and most important perennial legumes, primarily used as a high-quality feed for livestock. Both alfalfa and red clover, as well as some other plant species from Fabaceae family, are a rich natural source of phytoestrogens, nonsteroidal compounds with an estrogenic activity whose beneficial effects in the prevention and treatment of many diseases are demonstrated in numerous scientific studies.
OBJECTIVE: Nowadays, various herbal preparations are present on the world market and their use is constantly increasing, as well as the growing demands of consumers for environmentally sound and health-safe production of plant species used as sources of active substances. Because of their widespread distribution, the possibility of organic breeding, and also significant increases in surface area under genetically modified crops in most EU countries, alfalfa and red clover have become more interesting alternative sources of phytoestrogens. The most common phytoestrogens in these forage legumes are genistein, daidzein, glycitein, formononetin, biochanin, coumestrol, kaempferol and apigenin. The content of these substances is significantly influenced by a number of factors including genotype, environment, production technology, plant maturity stage, and individual plant parts.
CONCLUSIONS: Available evidence suggests that forage legumes represent high promising sources of health-promoting phytoestrogens. Due to numerous favorable features, they can find commercial application in different industries such as pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic, and agriculture.