The edible natural pigments extracted from plant organs become steadly popular to consumer because of those physiological functions desirable for food preservation and human health in recent years. There are a number of colored rice genotypes from light brown to blackish purple via reddish brown and purple. Some researchers reported their results on extraction recipes and identification of chemical structure of the pigments from the colored rice. The pigments extracted from colored rices can be largely divided into two types of anthocyanin and tannin pigments. Anthocyanin pigments are mainly contained in purple or blackish purple rice while tannin pigments are mainly contained in brown or reddish brown rice. Some brownish purple rices showed two peaks of tannin and anthocyanin pigments simultaneously. Purple rices showed better extraction of pigments in $0.1\%$ HCl-contained $80\%$ methanol or $0.5\%$ malic-acid-contained $80\%$ ethanol, while red rices revealed better extraction of pigments in $0.01\%$ citric-acid-contained $80\%$ ethanol. The anthocyanin pigments are generally unstable to heat, light and acidity of solution. The pigments extracted from colored rice can be preserved stably under the dark and cool(<$5^{\circ}C$) condition and at pH $2.0\~4.0$. The anthocyanin pigments of purple rice are mainly composed by cyanidin-3-glucoside (chrysanthemin). The other pigment fractions in purple rice were identified to peonidin-3-gluco-side, malvidin-3-galactoside(uliginosin) and cyanidin-3-ramnoglucoside(keracyanin). The pericarp coloration of purple rices is controlled by three complimentary genes C (anthocyanin), A(activator) and $Pl^{w}$(purple leaf) genes, while the red rices are expressed by complimentary interaction between Rc(basic substance of pigment) and Rd(distribution of pigment) genes or C and $Pl^{w}$ genes. Recently, the antioxidation and antimutagenic activity in main component of anthocyanin pigments extracted from colored rice were identified. The natural pigments from colored rice can be useful for beverages, cakes, ice scream, cosmetic and so on.

[ ($1{\to}3$) ], ($1{\to}4$)-${\beta}$-D-glucans(${\beta}-glucans$) are a major component of the cell walls of grasses as a component of the cereal endosperm and aleurone cell walls. Although ${\beta}-glucans$ exist in all cereals, their concentration is highest in oats and barley. Genetic and environmental differences are found in total ${\beta}-glucan$ content. Both oats and barley ${\beta}-glucans$ have cholesterol-lowering effects. This suggests possible use as food additives. Structural characterization of ${\beta}-glucan$ is important because structure can influence physical and physiological properties. In this review, ${\beta}-glucans$ of barley and oats are discussed in details including structure, chemical and physical properties, and nutritional implications. The use of barley and oat products as well as ${\beta}-glucan$ as a food additive continues to increase. This can provide an additional market for barley and oats, thus increasing the value of the crops.

Soyfoods have potential roles in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, most notably cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. There is evidence that carcinogenesis are supressed by isolated soybean derived products in vivo such as a protease inhibitor, phytic acid, saponins and isoflavones. It is believed that supplementation of human diets with soybean products markedly reduces human cancer mortality rates. Especially, recent papers recognize the potential benefit of soybean isoflavone components for reducing the risk of various cancers. Isoflavones exhibit a multitude of medicinal effects that influence cell growth and regulation, which may have potential value in the prevention and treatment of cancer. In addition to potential biological effects, soybean isoflavones have the important physiological functions such as the induction of Bradyrizobium japonicum nod genes and the responses of soybean tissues to infection by Phytophthora megasperma as well as biochemical activities such as antifungal and antibacterial actions. Genistin, daidzin, glycitin and their aglycone (genistein, daidzein, glycitein) are the principal isoflavones found in soybean. Malonyl and acetyl forms have also been detected but they are thermally unstable and are usually transformed during the processing in glucoside form. Most soy products, with the exception of soy sauce, alcohol-extracted soy protein concentrate, and soy protein isolate, have total isoflavone concentrations similar to those in the whole soybean. Soybean-containing diets inhibit mammary tumorigenesis in animal models of breast cancer, therefore, it is possible that dietary isoflavones are an important factor accounting for the lower incidence and mortality from breast cancer. Of the total soybean seed isoflavones, $80\~90\%$ were located in cotyledons, with the remainder in the hypocotyls. The hypocotyls had a higher concentrations of isoflavones on a weight basis compared with cotyledons. Isoflavone contents were influenced by genetics, crop years, and growth locations. The effect of crop year had a greater impact on the isoflavone contents than that of location. The climate condition might be the attribution factor to variation in isoflavone contents. Also, while the isoflavone content of cotyledons exhibited large variations in response to high temperature during seed development, hypocotyls showed high concentration in isoflavone content. So, it is concluded that one of the factors affecting isoflavone content in soybean seeds is temperature during seed development. High temperature, especially in maturity stage, causes lower isoflavone content in soybean seed. It is also suggested that there may exist a different mechanism to maintain isoflavone contents between cotyledon and seed hypocotyls. In a conclusion, soy foods may be able to have a significant beneficial impact on public health.

The objective of this report is to review the up to present papers including 79 references about functional ingredients in maize and their variations. Maize is a good source of such antioxidants as ${\alpha}-,\;{\gamma}-tocopherols,\;{\alpha}-,\;{\beta}-carotene,\;{\beta}-cryptoxanthin$, zeaxanthin, quercetin and chlorogenic acid. Unsaponifiable standard extracts of Zea mays L. (ZML) have a beneficial effect on various dental diseases. Flavonoids, flavonoid biosynthetic pathway and their controling genes were also reviewed in this report. Flavonoids are required for successful fertilization in maize pollen, and maysin has a potent antibiotic activities to earworm and fall armyworm in maize silks. Maize silks have been used in traditional medicine for diuretic, vascular diseases and diabetes, etc. and boiling water extracts of maize silk have hemodynamic effects, but their ingredients still remain obscure.

In Korea, buckwheat has historically held a very important position because it has been used as a food and traditional medicine. The objectives of this report were to mainly review the up to present papers includings 75 references about buckwheat's rutin, functional ingredients and their variations. Buckwheat provides an abundance of such nutrition as protein, amino acids, vitamin($B_1,\;B_2$, E, P), minerals(Fe, Zn, Mn, Mg, P, Cu, Ca, Se) and dietary fiber. Buckwheat's essential amino acid, lysine, is notably higher amount than cereals. Rutin(vitamin P), one of a group of flavonoids, is abundant in buckwheat and noted for its beneficial function of reducing every kinds of radiation and vascular diseases, diabetes mellitis and retinal hemorrhage, etc. Rutin also acts as a pigment stabilizer and acetone extracts of buckwheat have a potent tyrosinase inhibitory activity.

Antioxidants of sesame have been reported to cure and prevent various diseases by means of diverse physiological activities, prevention of acidification in organisms, prevention of acidification and decay of lipids, cholesterol depression, preventive effects on chemical breast cancer, skin beauty and senescence inhibition, and so on. Recognizing their significance to health and disease prevention, researchers in Japan and America have given so much importance to study antioxidants in the last decade. In addition, they are actively pursuing studies on production, processing for food use and development of new varieties that have high antioxidant content. Recently, researchers in Korea have shown the same interest and have conducted similar studies, however, the importance of the following basic issues must be recognized to guide in future activites : First, improvement of sesame quality must be done to raise the contents of not only the fat and fatty acid but also sesamin, sesamolin and sesaminol glucoside. For the use of these components it is necessary to study the gentic pattern and individual selections developed from minimum sample size and fast lipid analysis techniques. Second, sesaminol of sesame has a remarkable function in preventing acidification and so sesame can be utilized as a food that prevents or delays aging caused by automatic acidification of fat. Therefore, for maximum medicinal benefit from sesame oil there is a need to develop food materials having new medicinal functions. Third, the sesamin and sesamolin content of sesame germplasms collected in Korea showed lower ranges of $0.04\~0.68$ percent and $0.08\~0.68$ percent respectively, while Japanese germ-plasm showed 1.9 percent maximum content of seasmin. Thus, germplasm collection and analysis of worldwide genetic resources are urgently needed.

The n-3 family fatty acids containing ${\alpha}$-linolenic acid(18:3, ALA) have been known as physiological activation materials such as inhibitory effects on the incidence of hyper-tension, coronary heart disease and cancers as well as the control of senilc dementia. Although a lot of ALA(about $63\%$) are contained in perilla oil, it has not been commercialized yet because the purification technique of the ALA has not been well established. The procedure of purification of ALA from perilla oil was saponified with 1 N-KOH /ethanol and then saturated and low level unsaturated fatty acids were removed by low-temperature crystallization method. The concentrated unsaturated fatty acids (containing about $75\%$ ALA) went down through the silver nitrate-impregnated silica column chromatography for separation of high purity of ALA. The results obtained we Fraction B, C and D contained ALA more than $85.5\%$(recovery, >$88.9\%,\;95.4\%$(recovery, >$54.4\%$) and $99.9\%$(recovery, >$31.5\%$) in purity, respectively. Seed oil content of the tested varieties were ranged from 34.8 to $54.1\%$ with $45.3\%$ of varietal means. The major omega fatty acids contained in the oil were oleic acid(n-9) $15.2\%$, linoleic acid(n-6) $13.9\%$ and linolenic acid(n-3) $63.1\%$ in the mean value. Varietal variation of n-9, 6 and 3 fatty acids ranged of $9.5\~21.4\%,\;9.1\~20.4\%$ and $50.6\~70.5\%$ respectively. Unsaturated fatty acid were averaged $92.2\%$ of seed oil in fatty acid composition. The ratios of n-6 to n-3 ranged of $0.13\~0.34\%$($0.22\%$ in mean value). The highest n-3 fatty acid variety was Yecheonjong being $70.5\%$. The lowest variety in ratios of n-6 to n-3 was Goseongjong being $0.13\%$. Oil content showed positive correlation with stearic acid and linolenic acid, while the negative correlation with oil content and linoleic acid. On the other hand, A significant negative correlation were showed between linolnic acid and the ratios n-6/n-3 fatty acid, saturated fatty acid. Saturated fatty acid was highly correlated with unsaturated fatty acid negatively being $r= -0.723^{**}$.

This review deals briefly with the various medicinal components(mainly saikosaponins), their biological activities and the variation of their contents by different cultivation environment and plant parts in Bupleurum species. Bupleuri radix, a crude drug, is the root of Bupleurum falcatum L. (Korea, Japan), B. chinense(China), and their related species (Umbelliferae). There are over 120 species in Bupleurum genus throughout world, mainly Asian area, and over 5 species in Korea, investigated up to now. These plants contain many physiological active compounds and the principal components are saikosaponins. Major activities of this crude drug and saikosaponins are the anti-inflammatory and antihepatotoxic activities. Saikosaponins and their derivatives in Bupleurum spp. have been chemically studied, isolated and identified over 70 compounds in over 50 species. Other components, physiologically active ones, also have been investigated, which are the groups of lignan, flavonoid, essential oil, polyacetylene, polysaccharide, etc. Saikosaponins belong to the group of triterpenoid saponin chemotaxonomically and occur the accumulation and turnover in plant tissues through secondary metabolism, mevalonic acid pathway. The contents and kinds of saikosaponins and other components in Bupleurum spp. plants are various due to different species and growing environments, as the plant growth characters and yield are various. Most of medicinal plants as well as Bupleurum species are very useful as agricultural products and traditional medicines, and also are very valuable as genetic resources and natural products. So we need to collect, evaluate, preserve, and utilize various medicinal plants, and also to under-stand secondary metabolism and improve the breeding and cultivation techniques for the safe production of crude drugs with high quality and yielding.

Amaranth(Amaranthus spp. L.) and quinoa (Chenpodium quinoa Willd.) are old crops from South, Central America and Central Asia and their grains have been identified as very promising food crops because of their exceptional nutritive value. Squalene is an important ingredient in skin cosmetics and computer disc lubricants as well as bioactive materials such as inhibition of fungal and mammalian sterol biosynthesis, antitumor, anticancer, and immunomodulation. Amaranth has a component called squalene (2,6,10,15,19,23-hexamethyl-2,6,10,14,22-tetraco-sahexaene) about 1/300 of the seed and $5\~8\%$ of its seed oil. Oil and squalene content in amaranth seed were different for the species investigated. Squalene content in seed oil also increased by $15.5\%$ due to puffing and from 6.96 to $8.01\%$ by refining and bleaching. Saponin concentrations in quinoa seed ranged 0.01 to $5.6\%$. Saponins are located in the outer layers of quinoa grain. These layers include the perianth, pericarp, a seed coat layer, and a cuticle like structure. Oleanane-type triterpenes saponins are of great interest because of their diverse pharmacological properties, for instance, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, contraceptive, and cholesterol-lowering effects. It is known that quinoa contains a number of structurally diverse saponins including the aglycones, oleanolic acid, hederagenin, and phytolaccagenic acid, which are new potential in gredient for pharmacological properties. It is likely that these saponin levels will be considerably affected by genetic, agronomic and environmental factors as well as by processing. With the current enhanced public interest in health and nutrition amaranth and quinoa will most likely remain in the immediate future within the realm of exotic health foods until such time as agricultural production meets the quantities and qualify required by industrial food manufacturers.