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Microbial metabolism of soy isoflavones by human intestinal bacterial strains

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Abstract

Intestinal bacteria play an important role for the metabolism of soy isoflavonoids. When soy foods are consumed, the soy isoflavone glucosides are metabolized into their aglycones and the related isoflavonoids by intestinal bacteria. We designed an in vitro microbial metabolic system using 29 commercially available human intestinal bacterial strains and elucidated the metabolism of soy isoflavone glucosides. The strains were classified into three categories, which were 14 facultative anaerobes, 13 obligate anaerobes, and 2 aerobes. Almost all facultative anaerobe strains metabolized soy isoflavone glucosides to their aglycones. The ratio of metabolism from glucoside to aglycone was different in each strain. Contrary to the facultative anaerobes, some of the obligate anaerobes did not metabolize soy isoflavone glucosides at all. Both the aerobic bacteria hardly metabolized soy isoflavone glucosides. The bacterial growth speed might show good correlation to the metabolizing speed of both glucosides. Therefore, the speed of metabolism would be different in each bacterial strain, too.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Fumio Miake of the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, and Hidenori Kaminishi of the Department of Infection Biology, Fukuoka Dental College, for kindly suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, 8-19-1 Nanakuma, Fukuoka, 814-0180, Japan

    Ryota Tsuchihashi, Seiichi Sakamoto, Mitsuru Kodera & Junei Kinjo

  2. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 5-1 Oehonmachi, Kumamoto, 862-0973, Japan

    Toshihiro Nohara

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  1. Ryota Tsuchihashi
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  2. Seiichi Sakamoto
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  3. Mitsuru Kodera
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  4. Toshihiro Nohara
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  5. Junei Kinjo
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Correspondence to Junei Kinjo.

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Tsuchihashi, R., Sakamoto, S., Kodera, M. et al. Microbial metabolism of soy isoflavones by human intestinal bacterial strains. J Nat Med 62, 456–460 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-008-0271-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-008-0271-y

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