• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.35 no.3 s.138
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• pp.255-258
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• 2004

Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris ssp pekinensis) is one of the most popular green vegetables in Cruciferae family, which consisted in many Korean food. All kinds of Chinese cabbage are used both fresh and cooked with certain varieties being more suitable than others for some uses. A unique dish, Kimchi, has been developed in Korea and elsewhere by fermenting Chinese cabbage and pickling it in salt solution. Though lots of beneficial effect of Kimchi on human health has been published before, it is still debatable and in vague on the active origin of the Kimchi or of the Chinese cabbage responsible for the corresponding biological activities. We have recently conducted photochemical investigation of the Chinese cabbage, which is the main ingredient of the Korean traditional food, Kimchi. The MeOH extract of Chinese cabbage was partitioned with ethylacetate and BuOH, successively. The ethyl acetate soluble part was subjected to column chromatography with silica gel and RP-18, which gave finally five minor components, i.e., ${\beta}-sitosterol$ (1), indole-3-acetonitrile (2), 4-methoxyindole-3-acetonitrile (3), methyl ferulate (4), glycerol 1-(9,12,15-octadecatrienoate) (5). The structures of them were established on the basis of spectral $(^1H-NMR,\;^{13}C-NMR)$ evidences.