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Skin undergoes degenerative changes as it ages, which include the loss of elasticity, reductions in the epidermal thickness and collagen content, elastic fiber degeneration, and increased wrinkling and dryness. Skin aging can be significantly delayed by the administration of estrogen. Estrogen deficiency following menopause results in atrophic skin changes and the acceleration of skin aging. Estrogen administration has positive effects on human skin by delaying or preventing skin aging manifestations, but the use of estrogen replacement is a risk factor for breast and uterine cancer. Phytoestrogens are a large family of plant‐derived molecules possessing various degrees of estrogen‐like activity; they exhibit agonist or antagonist estrogenic properties depending on the tissue. These molecules could be ideal candidates to combat skin aging and other detrimental effects of hypoestrogenism. In this paper, we review the effects of phytoestrogens on human skin and the mechanisms by which phytoestrogens can alleviate the changes due to aging.

Chronic gastritis (CG) is an inflammatory disease. Atractylodes macrocephala Koidz (AMK) is employed in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat various disorders. AMK can be efficacious against CG, but the active ingredients, drug targets, and its exact molecular mechanism are not known. We employed network pharmacology to analyze the active ingredients, drug targets, and key pathways of AMK in CG treatment. Seventyseven AMK candidate ingredients were selected from four databases, and 27 active ingredients were selected for CG treatment. Twenty-five overlapping gene symbols related to CG and drugs were obtained from GeneCards and OMIM databases. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and TCM comprehensive network (Drug-Ingredients-Gene symbols-Disease network) were constructed, and 528 Gene Ontology (GO) terms and 26 pathways were obtained by analyses of enrichment of GO pathways and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. We suggest that the interleukin-17 signaling pathway, C-type lectin receptor signaling pathway, tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway, and AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications might serve as the key points and principal pathways for CG treatment. We also evaluated the reliability of some important active ingredients and targets by in vitro experiments. We showed that AMK probably influences the inflammatory response, amino acid synthesis, and energy metabolism when treating CG. This study provides novel insights for researchers to explore the mechanism of action of TCM systematically.

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