Genistein, a soy isoflavone, is a potent α-glucosidase inhibitor

Genistein is an isoflavone that is known to be contained in soybean. It was proved that genistein plays a pivotal role in homeostasis in the human body, In the course of screening for useful alpha -glucosidase inhibitors, we isolated and identified genistein as a candidate for alpha -glucosidase inhibitor from fermentation broths of a Strepromyces sp, Genistein was shown to be a reversible, slow-binding, non-competitive inhibitor of yeast alpha -glucosidase with a K-i value of 5.7 x 10(-8) M when the enzyme mixture was pretreated with genistein, These results show a possibility that genistein could be a useful tool for metabolic disorders. (C) 2001 Federation of European Biochemical Societies, Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.