Different Effects of Pueraria mirifica, a Herb Containing Phytoestrogens, on LH and FSH Secretion in Gonadectomized Female and Male Rats

Abstract

Abstract. To investigate the effect of Pueraria mirifica (P. mirifica) containing phytoestrogens on reproductive systems, both sexes of rats were gonadectomized and treated orally with 0, 10, 100, and 1,000 mg/ kg BW per day of P. mirifica suspended in water (abbreviated as P-0, P-10, P-100, and P-1000), respectively. The treatment schedule was separated into 3 periods: pre-treatment, treatment, and post-treatment. The duration for each period was 14 days. Blood samples were taken once a week. Serum LH and FSH levels were significantly increased within 1 week after gonadectomy; and there were no changes after administration of P-0, P-10, and P-100. However, the increase of LH levels in both sexes and FSH levels in females were attenuated within 1 week after P-1,000 treatment. The attenuation of LH levels in males was smaller than that of females. The decrease of gonadotropin levels was recovered within 1 week in males and 2 weeks in females, respectively, during the post-treatment period. The increase of uterine weight and vaginal cornification were observed in female rats treated with P-100 and P-1,000, whereas only the increase of epididymis weight was found in male rats treated with P-1,000. From this study, it can be concluded that P. mirifica can influence the reproductive functions in both sexes of rats, but the response in females is greater than in males.

The mutagenic and antimutagenic effects of the traditional phytoestrogen-rich herbs, Pueraria mirifica and Pueraria lobata

“…Even though this study did not involve cells harboring estrogen receptors, previous work using the ERα + cell line, MCF-7, showed an anti-proliferation effect only at high doses of both plants extracts (20). Even though P. lobata extracts had a lower estrogenic effect than P. mirifica regarding vaginal cornification (8) and uterotrophy (31) and a lower cytotoxicity than P. mirifica in MCF-7 (20), in the present study there was not much difference in the non-mutagenic and anti-mutagenic activities of the two plants.…”

“…The isoflavonoid contents of the tuber powder analyzed by RP-HPLC (1) were 35.55 mg/100 g puerarin, 27.39 mg/100 g daidzin, 58.00 mg/100 g genistin, 8.38 mg/100 g daidzein, and 1.99 mg/100 g genistein for P. mirifica, and 32.85 mg/100 g puerarin, 21.90 mg/100 g daidzin, 25.63 mg/100 g genistin, 10.34 mg/100 g daidzein, and 0.81 mg/100 g genistein for P. lobata.…”

“…Consumption of the tuberous powder generates a strong estrogenic activity as revealed by the induction of vaginal cornification in ovariectomized rats (5,6) and by the MCF-7 cell proliferation assay (7). Treatment of gonadectomized rats with plant tuber powder resulted in a reduction of LH and FSH levels (8), with dose-dependent estrogenic responses in female mice (9), female monkeys (10), and menopausal monkeys (11)(12)(13). The plant tuber powder also elicits dose-dependent physiological responses in male mice with a reduction in the weight of the epididymis and the seminal vesicles and reduced sperm motility and viability (14), promoting protection against osteoporosis in orchidectomized male (15) and female rats (16).…”

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“…Recently, the phytoestrogen-rich plants, Pueraria spp. and related plants, have been the subject of interest for researchers, especially with respect to their estrogenic properties [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . Pueraria spp.…”

“…In particular, Pueraria mirifica Airy Shaw et Suvatabhandu (Leguminosae), which contains large amounts of isoflavones, has been extensively studied for its content 8,12 and estrogenic effects on reproductive organs [5][6][7][8] and bones 10,11,13 . Most in vivo studies evaluating the estrogenic effects of phytoestrogens in P. mirifica used rodents as experimental animals [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] . However, the diets fed to experimental rodents usually contain soybean products as a protein source.…”