Estrogens of vegetable origin

In recent years, estrogens of vegetable origin have acquired some importance that justify the presentation of the available data. The compounds that have estrogenic effect when ingested as food through vegetables include isoflavones, lignines and lactones. The review comprises their chemical structure, metabolism and excretion as well as their effect on plasmatic levels of estrogens FSH, LH and SHBG as well as their activity over lipoproteins and, naturally, their action on menopause symptoms and breast cancer.