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. 2006 Sep;102(3):247-50.
doi: 10.1263/jbb.102.247.

Production of equol from daidzein by gram-positive rod-shaped bacterium isolated from rat intestine

Kimiko Minamida  1 , Michiko Tanaka, Ayumi Abe, Teruo Sone, Fusao Tomita, Hiroshi Hara, Kozo Asano
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Free article

Production of equol from daidzein by gram-positive rod-shaped bacterium isolated from rat intestine

Kimiko Minamida et al. J Biosci Bioeng. 2006 Sep.
Free article

Abstract

Isoflavones (mainly daidzein and genistin) belong to the flavonoid group of compounds and are classified as phytoestrogens. In the intestine, daidzin is converted to daidzein by beta-glucosidase, and then daidzein is converted to O-desmethylangolensin (O-DMA) or equol via dihydrodaidzein by enzymes of intestinal bacteria. We isolated, for the first time, an anaerobic gram-positive rod-shaped strain capable of producing equol from daidzein. Its 16S rDNA gene sequence (1428 bp) showed 99% similarity with that of the human intestinal bacterium SNU-Julong 732 (AY310748) and 93% similarity with that of Eggerthella lenta ATCC 25559(T) (AF292375). This strain converted daidzein to equol via dihydrodaidzein in an equol-assay medium anaerobically. The addition of butyric acid and arginine increased the conversion ratio of daidzein to equol 4.7- and 4.5-fold, respectively.

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