Liquiritigenin is a flavanone found in a variety of plants including licorice. It is an estrogenic compound which acts as an agonist selective for the β-subtype of the estrogen receptor. It also has a choleretic effect. Liquiritigenin,NADPH:oxygen oxidoreductase (hydroxylating, aryl migration) is an enzyme that uses liquiritigenin, O2, NADPH and H+ to produce 2,7,4'-trihydroxyisoflavanone, H2O and NADP+. Liquiritigenin activated multiple ER regulatory elements and native target genes with ERbeta but not ERalpha. The ERbeta-selectivity of liquiritigenin was due to the selective recruitment of the coactivator steroid receptor coactivator-2 to target genes. In a mouse xenograph model, liquiritigenin did not stimulate uterine size or tumorigenesis of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.
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