Prev. Article Next Article Table of Contents

Article

Phytoestrogen Content of Foods of Animal Origin: Dairy Products, Eggs, Meat, Fish, and Seafood

Gunter G. C. Kuhnle*^†, Caterina Dell’Aquila^†, Sue M. Aspinall^†, Shirley A. Runswick^†, Angela A. Mulligan^‡ and Sheila A. Bingham^†

MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, Wellcome Trust/MRC Building, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0XY, United Kingdom, and EPIC, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, Worts Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN, United Kingdom

J. Agric. Food Chem., 2008, 56 (21), pp 10099–10104

DOI: 10.1021/jf801344x

Publication Date (Web): October 15, 2008

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: Fax: +44 (0) 1223-252765. E-mail: gk@mrc-dunn.cam.ac.uk., †

MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit.

, ‡

University of Cambridge.

Section:

Food and Feed Chemistry

Abstract

Dietary phytoestrogens may be involved in the occurrence of chronic diseases. Reliable information on the phytoestrogen content in foods is required to assess dietary exposure and disease risk in epidemiological studies. However, existing analyses have focused on only one class of these compounds in plant-based foods, and there is only little information on foods of animal origin, leading to an underestimation of intake. This is the first comprehensive study of phytoestrogen content in animal food. We have determined the phytoestrogen content (isoflavones: biochanin A, daidzein, formononetin, genistein, and glycitein; lignans: secoisolariciresinol and matairesinol; coumestrol; equol; enterolactone; and enterodiol) in 115 foods of animal origin (including milk and milk-products, eggs, meat, fish, and seafood) and vegetarian substitutes using liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry (LC−MS) with ¹³C-labeled internal standards. Phytoestrogens were detected in all foods analyzed; the average content was 20 μg/100 g of wet weight (isoflavones, 6 μg/100 g; lignans, 6 μg/100 g; equol, 3 μg/100 g; and enterolignans, 6 μg/100 g). In infant soy formula, 19 221 μg/100 g phytoestrogens were detected (compared to 59 μg/100 g in non-soy formula). Our study shows that all foods analyzed contained phytoestrogens and most foods (except for fish, seafood, and butter) contained mammalian phytoestrogens (enterolignans and equol). This is the first comprehensive study of phytoestrogen content of foods of animal origin and will allow for a more accurate estimation of exposure to dietary phytoestrogens.

Keywords:

Phytoestrogens; enteroligans; dairy products; meat

View: Full Text HTML | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links

Citing Articles

View all 1 citing articles

Citation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by Linking service. For a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder.

This article has been cited by 1 ACS Journal articles (1 most recent appear below).

Nutritional Aspects of Second Generation Soy Foods
Marcela Roquim Alezandro, Daniel Granato, Franco Maria Lajolo, and Maria Inés Genovese
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry2011 59 (10), 5490-5497
- Nutritional Aspects of Second Generation Soy Foods
  Marcela Roquim Alezandro, Daniel Granato, Franco Maria Lajolo, and Maria Inés Genovese
  Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry2011 59 (10), 5490-5497
  Samples of 15 second generation soy-based products (n = 3), commercially available, were analyzed for their protein and isoflavone contents and in vitro antioxidant activity, by means of the Folin–Ciocalteu reducing ability, DPPH radical scavenging ...
  Abstract | Full Text HTML | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links