Coumestan is an organic compound

Organic compound

An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...

 that is a derivative of coumarin

Coumarin

Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...

. Coumestan forms the central core of a variety of natural compounds known collectively as coumestans. Coumestans, including coumestrol

Coumestrol

Coumestrol is a natural organic compound in the class of phytochemicals known as coumestans. It has garnered research interest because of its estrogenic activity and its prevalence in some foods, such as soybeans....

, a phytoestrogen, are found in a variety of plants. Food sources high in coumestans include split pea

Split pea

Split peas are the dried, peeled and split seeds of Pisum sativum. In north India, they are generally known as matar ki daal, sometimes used as a cheaper variation for the very popular chhole on stalls offering it. . They come in yellow and green varieties. The peas are round when harvested and dried...

s, pinto beans, lima beans, and especially alfalfa

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...

 and clover

Clover

Clover , or trefoil, is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the leguminous pea family Fabaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution; the highest diversity is found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, but many species also occur in South America and Africa, including at high altitudes...

 sprouts.

Coumestol has about the same binding affinity for the ER-β

Estrogen receptor beta

Estrogen receptor beta , also known as NR3A2 , is a nuclear receptor which is activated by the sex hormone estrogen. In humans, ER-β is encoded by the ESR2 gene.- Function :...

 estrogen receptor

Estrogen receptor

Estrogen receptor refers to a group of receptors that are activated by the hormone 17β-estradiol . Two types of estrogen receptor exist: ER, which is a member of the nuclear hormone family of intracellular receptors, and the estrogen G protein-coupled receptor GPR30 , which is a G protein-coupled...

 as 17β-estradiol

Estradiol

Estradiol is a sex hormone. Estradiol is abbreviated E2 as it has 2 hydroxyl groups in its molecular structure. Estrone has 1 and estriol has 3 . Estradiol is about 10 times as potent as estrone and about 80 times as potent as estriol in its estrogenic effect...

, but much less affinity for 17α-estradiol

Alfatradiol

Alfatradiol is a 5α-reductase inhibitor used topically for the treatment of androgenic alopecia in men and women.-Uses:...

, although the estrogenic potency of coumestrol at both receptors is much less than that of 17β-estradiol.

Because of the estrogenic activity of some coumestans, a variety of syntheses

Organic synthesis

Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the construction of organic compounds via organic reactions. Organic molecules can often contain a higher level of complexity compared to purely inorganic compounds, so the synthesis of organic compounds has...

have been developed that allow the preparation of coumestans so that their pharmacological effects can be explored.