Licorice hormonal activity

Phytoestrogens (phytosterols)compounds with very mild hormonal activity, such as licorice, red clover, and alfalfa. 

There is considerable interest in understanding the structural bases for these differences because this information would be very useful in designing steroids and other compounds to selectively regulate the activity of one or more steroid dehydrogenases as a means of treating hormone-responsive diseases. There is precedent for this kind of treatment in the use of licorice extract from the root of the plant Glycyrrhiza glabra [15,27] to treat Addison s disease,... 

---