Estrogenic activity of the dichloromethane extract from Pueraria mirifica.

Pueraria mirifica and its extracts are widely used as the ingredient(s) in many rejuvenating products. Up to now, the extract of P. mirifica roots that has been used in most studies, is the alcoholic extract. In the present study, we investigated the estrogenic activity using uterotropic and MCF-7 cell proliferation models of the dichloromethane extract as well as the water extract which was obtained from partitioning the ethanolic extract. The results indicated that among the three extracts, i.e. the ethanolic extract (PM1), the water extract (PM2) and dichloromethane extract (PM3), PM3 exhibited the most potent estrogenic activity in both models, followed by PM1. The extracts produced uterotropic activity associated with the increase of water content while uterotropic activity of 17beta-estradiol was related to the increase of muscle mass. The two isoflavonoids, genistein and daidzein, were not the major active phytoestrogens involving the estrogenic activity of these extracts.