| Professor Will Price who delivered the final Professorial Lecture for... Professor Will Price who delivered the final Professorial Lecture for 2007 with the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Lee Astheimer with whom Professor Price carries out collaborative studies |
Phytoestrogens: are they soy good for you?
17 Oct 2007 | Bernie Goldie
The final Professorial Lecture at UOW for 2007 was presented today (Wednesday 17 October) on the topic “Phytoestrogens: are they soy good for you? Adventures with Bioactive compounds.”
Professor Will Price from UOW’s School of Chemistry delivered the lecture.
He discussed a range of studies which have investigated the health benefits from diets containing different classes of phytoestrogens, isoflavones and lignans. In addition, he discussed recent work looking at a rather different aspect of phytoestrogens -- their occurrence in the environment and whether they have any deleterious effects.
Professor Price told his audience that phytoestrogens are a very interesting group of bioactive plant based compounds with hormonal activity and structural similarity to endogenous estrogens. They include isoflavones from soy and other legumes, lignans from linseed and whole grains, and coumestans from clover.
He pointed to the fact that among Asian populations with a high intake of soy, epidemiological evidence has demonstrated a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, hormone-dependent cancers of the breast and prostate, colon cancer, menopausal symptoms and osteoporosis.
Thus diet, and in particular soy and its isoflavones, have been implicated as affording some protection against the development of these hormone dependent cancers and cardiovascular disease.
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