Enterolignans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Compounds produced in the intestine when gut bacteria act on plant lignans, studied for their possible hormone-like and health effects
2. Mammalian metabolites formed by colonic microbes from dietary lignans found in seeds, grains and vegetables
3. Bioactive phytoestrogen-like substances generated in the gut from plant lignans through bacterial transformation

Etymology: "Enterolignans" is the plural of "enterolignan", a term for compounds that the gut produces from plant lignans, which are a class of plant chemicals. The word is built from two parts. "Lignan" is the older component: it comes from the Latin "lignum", meaning wood, because these compounds were first associated with the woody parts of plants. The prefix "entero-" comes from the Greek "enteron", meaning intestine or gut, so the whole term means something like "gut lignan." The logic of the name follows the chemistry. Plant lignans pass into the digestive tract largely unchanged, and gut bacteria then transform them into new molecules that the plant never made. The name records that origin: the compound is a lignan in structure, but its identity comes from the intestine rather than from the plant itself.