Proposed Design and In-silico Studies of Functional Idli as a Prophylactic Measure to Reduce Post-Menopausal Adverse Effects in Women

Abstract

Food Science and Engineering have become a rapidly evolving domain that has gained prominence in recent years to facilitate the development of enriched food products (like functional foods). It is utilized as a prophylactic measure for several health conditions like osteoporosis, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and so on. Functional foods perform prophylactic activity through components like phytochemicals in their ingredients which may interact with the target receptors in susceptible people. The post-menopausal women become susceptible to numerous complications, including bone atrophy, osteoporosis, depression, dementia, obesity, vasomotor symptoms, and other lifestyle disorders. As reduced estrogen production is the major reason for such conditions' development, therapeutic interventions like hormone replacement therapy are administered to treat the complications associated with post-menopause. Hormone therapy is identified to be associated with some important limitations. This gives rise to the need to develop safer approaches for prophylaxis of post-menopausal adverse. In this review, we attempt to propose a design of functional idli made up of oats (Avena sativa), soybean (Glycine max), decorticated black gram (Vigna mungo), rice (Oryza sativa), moringa leaves (Moringa oleifera), spinach (Spinacia oleraceae) and fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graceum) as a prophylactic measure to reduce post-menopausal adverse effects in women. These ingredients are sources of phytoestrogen (that structurally mimics human estrogen), consumption of which is beneficial in promoting healthy life in post-menopausal women. Computational studies like molecular docking can be utilized for in-silico validation of the efficacy of the formulation by demonstrating the effective binding of the phytoestrogens with the estrogen receptors α and β.