Plants and the chemicals they make: Phytoestrogens

Soy isoflavones and resveratrol are good ingredients for an anti-aging cream, but if you are a woman over 50, you may need even more help. Several beneficial botanical extracts can supply your skin (and scalp) with beneficial chemicals that will bind to the estrogen receptors left vacant by menopause.  

Phytoestrogens are plant chemicals that can interact with two of the most important receptors of steroid hormones: the sex hormone-binding globulin and the cytosolic estrogen receptor. The chemical structures of phytoestrogens differ widely and may seem very different from estradiol, but a part of the molecule is similar enough to human estrogen to fool the receptor.

For those who think that Mother Nature made these chemicals for our benefit, think again: they are part of the defense system against fungi. Also, in the 1940s, it was observed that pastures of red clover, a phytoestrogen-rich plant, affected the fecundity of grazing sheep. It is likely that these plants evolved the biochemical pathways required to make these secondary metabolites to disrupt the hormonal balance in their predators, decreasing birth rates in sheep or whatever animal was having them for breakfast.

Below are some botanical extracts which contain chemicals with estrogenic properties.  As a bonus, many of these chemicals have other beneficial properties, including antioxidant and anticancer activities, and protection from UV damage.  Please note that the beneficial properties enumerated below are in addition to the estrogenic properties.

Ingredients: Soybean (Glycine max) Genistein, Flax (Linum usitatissimum) Lignans, Wild Yam Diosgenin, Soybean (Glycine max) Daidzein, Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) extract, Luteolin, Resveratrol, Apigenin, Phloretin, Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) Puerarin.

• Kudzu Puerarin– Pueraria is a rejuvenating folk remedy in Thailand, a tradition passed on from generation to generation. The Thai name is White Kwao Krua or Kwao Keur. In addition to puerarin, the 8-C-glucoside of daidzein, kudzu contains other phytoestrogens, such as miroestrol, deoxymiroestrol, daidzin, genistein, and coumestrol.
• Genistein and Daidzein- Stimulate the synthesis of hyaluronic acid. Genistein induces collagenation in soft tissue wound healing and inhibits tyrosine kinase.
• Flax Lignans- A class of phytoestrogens with antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties, and their skin strengthening properties will help preven scarring and stretch marks.
• Daidzein activates all three peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) isoforms, a group of nuclear receptor proteins that function as transcription factors regulating gene expression, cellular differentiation, development, and metabolism.
• Luteolin – A flavonoid with great properties: protection against lipid peroxidation and protease activation by UV radiation, anti-age, anti-itch, and anti-inflammatory. 
• Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxystilbene)- A polyphenolic antioxidant found in grapes and red wine, blocks UVB-mediated activation of the factor NFkappa-B, and this is the mechanism of protection against photocarcinogenesis.  Plant polyphenols like resveratrol  may benefit the skin with anti-inflammatory and wound healing activity through their interaction with growth factor receptors (and the cytoplasmic and nuclear pathways these receptors control), besides direct antioxidant activity.

DISCLAIMER: These claims have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease.