REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Ethnopharmacology: 2025View all 46 articles
Therapeutic potential of traditional Chinese Medicine Phytoestrogens in Chronic Kidney Disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
- 2Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, China
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In recent years, phytoestrogens in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)—a class of estrolike active components naturally occurring in medicinal plants—have gradually emerged as a research hotspot in the treatment of various diseases due to their multi-target regulatory potential. These metabolites are abundant in TCM, and an increasing body of evidence indicates that they have beneficial effects in chronic kidney diseases. Research demonstrates that phytoestrogens can alleviate renal pathological damage by regulating the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, reducing oxidative stress, and inhibiting the activation of fibrosis pathways. The application of phytoestrogens as a therapeutic strategy for chronic kidney diseases is highly promising. This review comprehensively summarizes the status of TCM phytoestrogens in chronic kidney disease research and elaborates in detail on various types of these compounds, such as baicalin and puerarin, as well as their protective effects on chronic kidney disease observed in animal and cell experiments. Additionally, we highlight the advantages of TCM phytoestrogens in the regulation of chronic kidney disease and discuss their potential clinical significance and future research directions in this field. These findings will provide a promising avenue for the development of drugs aimed at treating chronic kidney disease.
Keywords: Chronic Kidney Disease, Phytoestrogens, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Treatment, Research progress
Received: 24 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and LI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Minghan LI, imhan01@163.com
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