Bone Modulating Bioactive Natural Compounds: Review

Up to date, it has been reported that several bioactive natural compounds can modulate bone metabolism. It has been also disclosed that some of them simultaneously modulate the immune response. Thus, understanding the molecular mechanisms surrounding bone metabolism has moved bone research into a new era and recently the term “osteoimmunology” is coined to describe new interdisciplinary field of bone and immunology. Now, therefore bone research is one of the hot spots designing novel drugs. Notably, the role of phytoestrogens represented by isoflavones in the bone health was frequently reviewed; however only a few reviews thoroughly cover the field of bioactive natural compounds in bone metabolism. In this review, we summarize current status of representative bioactive natural compounds that modulate bone metabolism and present new therapeutic approaches in the near future by focusing on three classes of compounds phytoestrogens, polyunsaturated fatty acids and lactoferrin.