'NuRo (漏蘆)' is one of the crude drugs which has been used for removal of fever and skin disease. With regard to the botanical origin of 'NuRo', it has been considered to be Echinops species of Compositae, but there has no pharmacognostical confirmation on it. To clarify the botanical origin of 'NuRo', the anatomical characteristics of the root of Echinops latifolius and E. setifer were studied. As a result, it was clarified that 'NuRo' from Korea was the root of Echinops setifer.

Korean folk medicine 'MeoRuIp' has been used to cure cough, rheumatism and abdominal pain after child birth. There has been no pharmacognostical confirmation on the botanical origin of the crude drug. To clarify the botanical origin of 'MeoRuIp', the morphological and anatomical characteristics of the leaves of Vitis and Ampelopsis species growing in Korea, i.e. Vitis amurensis, V. amurensis forma. glabrescens, V. flexuosa, V. thunbergii var. sinuata and Ampelopsis brevipedunculata var. heterophylla were studied. As a result, it was clarified that 'MeoRuIp' was the leaf of Vitis amurensis and Vitis flexuosa.

The in vitro antibacterial activities of honeybee(Apis mellifera. L) venom collected by a bee venom collector were investigated against several bacteria including antibiotic-susceptible and resistant Propionibacterium acnes. Honeybee venom was prepared with different concentrations and they showed strong antibacterial activites. Honeybee venom inhibited the growth of the tested antibiotic-resistant P. acnes at the concentration of 1 mg/ml. The inhibitory activities of the honeybee venom showed time-dependent manner. Honeybee venom did not influence the viability of human dermal fibroblast at the high concentration of less than 10 mg/ml. From these results, we expect that honeybee venom has strong antibacterial activities and has advantage for treating cure.

In DPPH radical and nitric oxide scavenging ability, the extract of lowest temperature condition(40-15H ; 15 hours at $40^{\circ}C$ for drying) exhibited highest activity. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents of each extracts were found to be $120.4{\sim}193.3\;mg$/g and $86.91{\sim}94.55\;mg$/g respectively. It is shown that 40-15H was the highest content in each compound. In antimicrobial activity, a lower drying temperature conditions were found to be more strong activities in disc diffusion assay and each extracts showed MIC of identical level against every tested microbial strains. However 100-2H(2 hours at $100^{\circ}C$ for drying) was exhibited MIC of slightly low level against some strains. And every extract showed fine cell viabilities($101.7{\sim}122.9%$) against RAW 264.7 cell. In anti-proliferation activity against AGS, each extract showed a similar inhibition activity. However in anti-proliferation activity against HeLa, a lower drying temperature conditions showed more strong activities.

A simple and reliable reverse phase HPLC method of Coptidis Rhizoma and Salviae Miltiorrhizae Radix were developed to determine pharmacologically active marker compounds. The water-extract of two natural medicines were evaluated by the HPLC methods. The stability test for two extract were examined for five months. However, no significant change in the content of the marker compounds of each extract observed during the time of investigation.

Osteoblasts play an important role in bone metabolism by bone formation. Natural medicines having a stimulatory activity on osteoblast proliferation and differentiation can improve bone diseases such as osteoporosis. The methanol extracts of 159 herbal medicines were screened for the stimulatory activity on osteoblast proliferation by MTT assay and differentiation in the presence of ascorbic acid and $\beta$-glycerophosphate. Among the tested extracts, Alpiniae Semen, Amomi Semen, Anemarrhenae Rhizoma, Bambusae Folium, Cannabis Semen, Dalbergiae odoriferae Lignum, and Luffae Fructus Retinervus showed relatively strong stimulatory activity on osteoblast proliferation, whereas Amomi Semen showed strong stimulatory activity on osteoblast differentiation.

당뇨병 치료 및 예방에 전통적으로 사용되어온 생약 및 식품 소재로 구성된 생약복합제인 백강잠, 산약, 쥐눈이콩, 청국장가루의 복합물을 대상으로 실험관 및 동물실험을 통하여 혈당강하 효과를 확인하였다. 생약복합제 $H_2O$추출물은 당흡수에 관여하는 $\alpha$-glucosidase효소를 비교약물인 acarbose ($IC_{50}$=0.39 mg/mL)과 비교하여 1/3배 정도의 활성을 보였으며 ($IC_{50}$=1.24 mg/mL), ethanol추출물은 인슐린 내성에 관여하는 $PTP1{\beta}$ 효소작용을 ($IC_{50}=498.46{\mu}g$/mL) 효과적으로 억제하였다. $PTP1{\beta}$ 효소를 억제하는 n-hexane 분획을 대상으로 하여 GC-MS로 성분 분석한 결과 지방산유도체인 것으로 나타났다. 고지방식이와 저용량 STZ (35 mg/kg)으로 유발시킨 당뇨모델에서 OGTT 실험결과 비교약물인 rosiglitazone(당부하 30분 후 평균 60 mg/dL 의 감소)과 생약복합제 투여군의 경구 당부하능 개선효과를(당부하 30분 후 평균 30 mg/dL의 감소) 확인하였다. 또한, 대사성 증후군 모델에서는 체중증가의 감소 효과와 공복혈당의 증가를 현저히 억제함을 확인하였으며, OGTT에서도 후반부에 현저한 경구당부하능 개선 효과를 관찰 할 수 있었다. 이 결과를 바탕으로 산약, 백강잠, 쥐눈이콩, 청국장으로 조제한 생약복합제는 당뇨 및 대사성 증후군의 혈당을 조절하는 데 도움을 줄 수 있을 것이라 판단된다.

Antitumor activity of Korean mistletoe extract (KM-110) and European commercial mistletoe preparation (Helixor) was investigated. KM-110 showed the cytotoxic effect that it is high for various tumor cell lines and normal splenocytes in comparison with Helixor. Administration of two mistletoe extracts ($100{\mu}g$) to mice did not show any significant changes on the level of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic-pyruvate transaminase (GTP), blood creatinine (CRE) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in sera. The culture supernatant of macrophages stimulated with KM-110 inhibited effectively tumor growth whereas Helixor had little effect. Administration of KM-110 or Helixor resulted in a effective inhibition of lung metastasis after the i.v. inoculation of colon 26-M3.1 lung carcinoma, B16-BL6 melanoma and L5178Y-ML25 lymphomas. In all cases, the mice treated with KM-110 showed more effective anti-tumor metastatic activity than the mice of Helixor. These results suggest that Korean mistletoe extracts, KM-110 might be used as an alternative methods having antitumor activity like European mistletoe preparation, Helixor.

This study was done to investigate the antioxidative effect of polygoni radix in Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced by intravenous injection of STZ at a dose of 45 mg/kg dissolved in citrate buffer. The ethanol extract of Polygoni radix was orally administrated once a day for 7 days. The contents of Total cholesterol, triglyceride (TG) were significantly decreased in Polygoni radix treated STZ-sample group compared with to the those of STZ-control group. The hepatic cytosolic activities of glutathione-s-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly increased, Also the content of glutathione (GSH) was incresaed in Polygoni radix treated STZ-sample group compared with to the those of STZ-control group. but the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and the hepatic cytosolic activity of Catalase (CAT) were decreaed but not statistical significant. These results indicated that ethanol extract of polygoni radix was effective for the antidxidative in the STZ-induced diabetic rats.

The roots of Rumecis Radix have been used for the treatment of heat phlegm, jaundice, constipation, scabies and uterine hemorrhage. The aim of this study was to confirm whether Rumecis Radix water extract (RJWE) has a preventive effect on the development of atopic dermatitis (AD) in 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB)-applied BALB/c mice. Oral administration (12.5 mg/kg, 25 mg/kg) and topical application (0.5 mg/mouse, 1.0 mg/mouse) of RJWE decreased the development of AD-like skin lesions, ear swelling, spleen weight and total serum IgE. RJWE significantly also inhibited the infiltration of mast cells in the dorsal skin. Furthermore, the release of histamine from rat peritoneal mast cells (RPMCs) was suppressed significantly. These results suggest that the inhibitory effect of RJWE on AD might be associated with mast cells.

For the quality control of traditional herbal medicine, Galgeun tang, simultaneous determination of glycyrrhizin, paeoniflorin, puerarin, 6-gingerol was established by using a high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with diode array detector. To separate five four constituents, DIONEX $C_{18}$ column ($5{\mu}m$, $120{\AA}$, $4.6\;mm{\times}150\;mm$) was used with gradient elution system of water and methanol. Validation of the chromatography method was evaluated by linearity, recovery, and precision test. Calibration curve of standard components showed excellent linearity ($R^2$>0.9906). Limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) varied from 0.15 to $0.52{\mu}g$/ml and 0.27 to $0.80{\mu}mg$/ml, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of data of the intra-day and inter-day experiments were less than 2.88% and 1.21%, respectively. The results of recovery test were ranged from 96.71 to 106.29% with RSD values 0.01-0.80%.

The ethanol (EtOH) extract of the branches of Cotinus coggygria (Anacardiaceae) exhibited a significant inhibition on the yeast $\alpha$-glucosidase, one of the key enzymes related with diabetes mellitus, in a dose dependent manner, in vitro. The intensive phytochemical survey of the EtOH extract of the species by way of bioactivity-guided fractionation resulted in the isolation of 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-$\beta$-D-glucose (1) as an active principle responsible for the inhibition on $\alpha$-glucosidase, together with two related components 2 and 3. Compound 1 demonstrated a strong inhibition on the yeast $\alpha$-glucosidase, in vitro and $IC_{50}$ value was calculated as 0.96 mg/ml, when that of a reference drug, acarbose was estimated as 5.3 mg/ml. On the other hand, other related constituents of the species, 1,2,3,6-tetra-O-galloyl-$\beta$-D-glucose (2) and gallic acid (3) were exhibited relatively poor inhibition upon the yeast $\alpha$-glucosidase, respectively.

Lindera obtusiloba has been used for centuries as a traditional medicine in Korea and recently known to have an anti-fibrotic effect. In this report, we investigated the effect of hot water extract from L. obtusiloba (WELB) on the mast cell-mediated allergic inflammation and studied its possible mechanisms of action. WELB inhibited phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate and calcium ionophore A23187 (PMACI)-induced histamine release in HMC-1 human mast cells. WELB reduced PMACI-induced gene expression and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-$\alpha$, interleukin (IL)-$1{\beta}$, IL-6, and IL-8. The inhibitory effect of WELB on the expression of proinflammatory cytokines was c-jun N-terminal kinase and nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ dependent. These results indicate that WELB may be beneficial in the treatment of mast cell-mediated allergic inflammation.

We examined ethanol extracts prepared from 23 Korean local plants obtained in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do for their inhibitory effects on recombinant human AKR 1 B10 (rhAKR1B10) in vitro. To do this, rhAKR1B10 was first expressed in E. coli as a biological active form and purified by using Ni-affinity chromatography followed by gel permeation chromatography. Then, rhAKR1B10 was used for screening out 23 Korean local plant extracts having an inhibitory activity against itself. Among them, six extracts showed more than 50% inhibition of rhAKR1B10 activity at the concentration of $10{\mu}g$/ml. Especially, the extracts of Ligularia fischeri var. spiciformis Nakai and Rhus trichocarpa Miq. were the most potent because their $IC_{50}$ values were 2.94 and $2.00{\mu}g$/ml, respectively.

Anti-hyperlipidemic effect of Sophorae Fructus in male Spague-Dawley rats induced by high-rich diet were studied. Oral administration of Sophorae Fructus extract significantly decreased serum total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride (TG), GOT and GPT levels, and incresed serum HDL-cholesterol level and also decreased the level of liver TC, TG, GOT and GPT. These results suggest that Sophorae Fructus extract is effective for the hyperlipidemia.

Cordyceps bassiana is a parasitic fungus and used as a Chinese traditional medicine. It has been called as DongChungHaCho(summer-plant, winter-worm) in China. Acute oral toxicity was examined in male and female ICR mice. Butanol fraction from Cordyceps bassiana(BuCb) was administered orally at a dose of 2,500 mg/kg, 5,000 mg/kg, 10,000 mg/kg. No death and abnormal clinical signs were observed throughout the administration period. The acute toxicity test on mouse did not show any oversign in net body weight gain, food and water consumptions, organ weights, gross pathological findings by different doses of BuCb. Also, biochemical examination revealed no evidence of specific toxicity. These findings show that BuCb has wide margin of safety on acute toxicity with single exposure.