This study was performed to examine the skin phototoxicity of purified bee venom (Apis mellifera L.) collected using bee venom collector. To confirm whether the gel containing purified bee venom (BV gel) causes photototoxicity when used for the skin medicinal products, phototoxicity testing was conducted using guinea pig models. The BV gel (0.1 ml/site) was administered transdermally to guinea pigs. 8-MOP was used to introduce positive control response. After administration, the guinea pigs were irradiated with UVA ($15J/cm^2$) with doses based on standard phototoxicity study guidelines. In the weight measurement and clinical observation, BV gel groups didn't show any significant changes compared with control group. BV gel groups did not show any symptoms such as erythema and edema formation of skin. This study demonstrated that BV gel has promising potential external treatment for topical uses that do not induce significant levels of skin phototoxicity.

The purpose of this study is to develop a new preparation process of ginseng berry extracts having high concentrations of ginsenoside Rh1, Rg2, Rg5, F4, a special component of red and black ginseng. Chemical transformation from ginseng saponin glycosides to prosapogenin was analyzed by the HPLC. Extracts of ginseng (Panax ginseng) berry was processed under several treatment conditions including ultrasonication treatments. The content of total saponin reached their heights at 6 hr (UGB-6, 61.760%) of ultrasonication treatment, followed by 10 hr (UGB-10, 53.009%) and 9 hr (UGB-9, 50.652%) of ultrasonication treatment at $100^{\circ}C$. Results of those treatments showed that the quantity of ginsenoside Rh1 increased by over 15% at 10 hr of ultrasonication treatment at $100^{\circ}C$. The results of processing with UGB-10 indicate that the ultrasonication processed ginseng berry extracts that had gone through 10 hr treatments were found to contain the largest amount of ginsenoside Rh1 (15.358%), Rg2 (6.301%), Re (4.567%) and F4 (2.658%). In addition, UGB-6 contained ginsenoside Rg3 (13.632%) at high concentrations. It is thought that such results provide basic information in preparing ginseng berry extracts with functionality enhanced.

Jakyakgamcho-tang is a well-known traditional herbal medicine and has been used for the treatment of mainly pains in oriental medicine. In this study, analytical method for the quantitative determination of the eleven marker components, gallic acid (1), oxypaeoniflorin (2), paeoniflorin (3), albiflorin (4), liquiritin (5), isoliquiritin (6), ononin (7), liquiritigenin (8), benzoylpaeoniflorin (9), paeonol (10), and glycyrrhizin (11) in Jakyakgamcho-tang decoction was performed using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometer. The analytical column for separation of the compounds 1~11 was used an UPLC BEH $C_{18}$ ($100{\times}2.1mm$, $1.7{\mu}m$) column and column oven temperature was maintained at $45^{\circ}C$. The mobile phase consisted of 0.1% (v/v) aqueous formic acid (A) and acetonitrile (B) by gradient elution. The flow rate was 0.3 ml/min and injection volume was $2.0{\mu}l$. Correlation coefficient in the calibration curves of the compounds 1~11 were showed a good linearity with more than 0.99. The limit of detection and limit of quantification values of the compounds 1~13 were detected in the ranges 0.06~18.43 ng/ml and 0.18~58.29 ng/ml, respectively. Among the compounds 1~11, the compounds 10 were not detected in this sample, while the ten compounds, 1~9 and 11, were detected $44.05{\sim}19,289.05{\mu}g/g$ in Jakyakgamcho-tang extract.

Alginic acid and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium are dietary fibers from plants. They have a swelling property and delay the gastric emptying time, thereby resulting in feeling satiated after oral administration, which may eventually contribute to loss of body weight. The goal of this study was to compare swelling property of three commercial matrix tablets based on alginic acid and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium. When the swelling was determined by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) guideline, the tablet prepared by direct compression method with highly viscous swelling agent showed the highest swelling in acidic conditions. Water uptake of these tablets was rapid and completed within 30 min. Moreover, when the pH was changed from 2.5 to 6.8 buffer, the water uptake was not significantly changed in all tablets.

N-Phenylthiourea derivatives and catechol oxidase receptor complex was studied using molecular mechanics method. The starting structure was adopted from the protein databank and the calculation of energy minimization and molecular dynamics was performed with AMBER package. The molecular dynamics showed that the simulation time span of 20 ns was long enough to observe the interaction profile and stationary ligand-receptor configuration in the complex. The conformation of the ligand was related to the interaction to the receptor and the efficacy was also interpreted in this context.

Drying of granules for tablet formulation is one of the important unit operations. The loss on drying method is traditionally used for this purpose. However, it is a time-consuming method, requiring at least 1 h. Moreover, it is ineffective in monitoring the moisture content of granules during the drying process. In this study, online real-time monitoring of moisture content during the drying process was successfully performed using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. NIR spectra were collected during 15 different drying batches for developing a reliable NIR spectroscopic method. Such a large number of batches were used to develop a more robust partial least squares (PLS) model. NIR spectra collected from 12 batches were used for developing the model that was validated by predicting the moisture content of the samples in the remaining 3 batches. The standard errors of predictions (SEPs) in the measurement of batch 1, batch 2, and batch 3 were 0.52%, 0.57%, and 0.56%, respectively. The online NIR spectroscopic method developed in this study was reliable and accurate in monitoring the moisture content during the drying process.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the representative neurodegenerative movement disorders with the selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. 6-Hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) is widely used as an experimental model system to mimic PD and has been reported to cause neuronal cell death via oxidative and/or nitrosative stress. Therefore, daily intake of dietary or medicinal plants which fortifies cellular antioxidant capacity can exert neuroprotective effects in PD. In the present study, we have investigated the protective effect of Korean red ginseng (KRG) against 6-OHDA-induced nitrosative death in C6 glioma cells. Treatment of C6 cells with 6-OHDA decreased cell viability and increased expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, production of nitric oxide as well as peroxynitrite, and formation of nitrotyrosine. 6-OHDA led to apoptotic cell death as determined by decreased Bcl-2/Bax, phosphorylation of JNK, activation of caspase-3, and cleavage of PARP. Conversely, pretreatment of C6 cells with KRG attenuated 6-ODHA-induced cytotoxicity, apoptosis, and nitrosative damages. To further elucidate the molecular mechanism of KRG protection against 6-OHDA-induced nitrosative cell death, we have focused on the cellular self-defense molecules against exogenous noxious stimuli. KRG treatment up-regulated heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), a key antioxidant enzyme essential for cellular defense against oxidative and/or nitrosative stress via activation of Nrf2. Taken together, these findings suggest KRG may have preventive and/or therapeutic potentials for the management of PD.