For example, our phylogenetic analysis of steroid receptor sequences reveal that steroid hormone action is a recent event in life on earth. That is, the classical steroid receptors for estrogens, androgens, progestins, glucocorticoids, and mineralocorticoids arose about 550 million years ago, just prior to or during the Cambrian explosion. With the availability of 3-dimensional structures of dehydrogenases and steroid receptors, we are beginning to model the 3D structures of steroid and retinol dehydrogenases and steroid receptors to investigate their mechanism of action. We intend to model phytochemicals and environmental chemicals in the hormone-binding domain of receptors and dehydrogenases to understand how these compounds bind to receptors and dehydrogenases. This information will be used to predict which dietary compounds and environmental chemicals are likely to have hormonal activity.
Plants have hormonal activity in humans.
In fact, herbals have long been used to treat health problems associated with endocrine physiology. For example, licorice root, which contains glycyrrhizic acid, has glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid activities in humans. It is now known that glycyrrhetinic acid, a metabolite of glycyrrhizic acid, inhibits the conversion of cortisol to cortisone, an inactive steroid, by 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase. By inhibiting 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, glycyrrhetinic acid increases cortisol levels in the blood, which leads to a glucocorticoid response, as well as a mineralocorticoid response in the kidney. Alexander the Great took advantage of the mineralocorticoid activity of licorice root during his march through Persia.