• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1409-1413
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• 2000

The seeds of Coix lachryma-jobi L. var. ma-yuen(yullmoo) were investigated for the free radical scavenging and mushroom tyrosinase inhibitory activities. Brown yullmoo, which contains bran in the seed, has also been evaluated for comparison. After partitioning of the total methanol extracts of yullmoo and brown yullmoo, each organic layer exhibited mild or potent dose-dependent inhibition(about 20-80%) on 1,1-diphenyl picryl hydrazyl(DPPH) free radical with the concentration of $300\;{\mu}g/ml$ to $800\;{\mu}g/ml$. n-Butanol fraction of yullmoo showed the most potent scavenging effect on DPPH free radical. $IC_{50}$ of n-butanol fraction was $423\;{\mu}g/ml$, about six to seven fold higher concentration than standard BHT at the same inhibition rate. As for the tyrosinase inhibitory activity, all of the fractions including the methanol extract exhibited the similar activities even after partitioning. The chloroform fraction of brown yullmoo was found to show the most potent inhibitory activity with an $IC_{50}$ of $321.5\;{\mu}g/ml$.