ESTROGEN-LIKE ACTIVE COMPOSITION DERIVED FROM TRIFOLIUM PRETENSE AND LINUM USITATISSIMUM SEED

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a composition that has estrogen-like activity approximately equal to that of equol being a metabolite of daidzein, one of soybean isoflavone aglycone.SOLUTION: A DNA microarray for estrogen activity evaluation, namely an oligo DNA microarray ([DNA chip]) loaded with 148 types of estrogen 17-estradiol (E2) response gene is used and a correlation analysis is performed between a gene expression profile obtained by the presence or absence of administration of various substrate fermentation extracts by various fungi belonging to the order Mucorales to MCF-7 cells and a gene expression profile obtained by a similar treatment of E2. Consequently, it is found that an extract from a fungus fermentation product derived from a mixture of Trifolium pretense and Linum usitatissimum seed has an estrogen-like activity almost equivalent to that of equol.