Book Description

The human skeleton undergoes a life-long remodeling process. Bone homeostasis requires a potential balance between bone-resorbing osteoclasts and bone-forming osteoblasts. With old age, bone homeostasis undergoes deregulation, and normal bone remodeling could not make bone mass stable, thus causing osteopenia and osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a systemic bone disease characterized by reduced bone mass, degraded bone microstructure, increased bone fragility and raised risk of fracture. Osteoporosis is a frequently occurring and common disease in the aging population, especially in postmenopausal women and elderly men. The updated research found that one-third of women aged 60 to 70 suffer from osteoporosis; Two-thirds of women aged 80 years or older have osteoporosis. About 20-25% of women over 50 years of age have one or more vertebral fractures. Recent research evidence indicates that an increasing number of plant-based natural products (or secondary metabolites), such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols, flavonoids, and other botanicals active compounds, have beneficial effects on the risk of osteoporosis. Compared with conventional therapies, plant-based natural products with thousands of years of medical use experience are gradually approved for clinical use due to fewer adverse reactions, low toxicity, high efficiency and good tolerance. Natural products have been an important source of inspiration for new drug development. However, most of the evidence regarding the anti-osteoporosis effects of natural products comes from in vitro and preclinical in vivo studies, and only a few natural products have been used clinically. All of these above-mentioned still require rigorously designed studies and further verification.