• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.438-446
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• 2022

Some flowers have a high sensual appeal owing to their unique shape, color, smell, and taste and have been used as functional food and oriental medicine. Recently, edible dry flowers (EDFs) have attracted social attention as noble sources of functional teas. In this study, for the risk assessment of EDFs, pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals, and pesticide residues were monitored in 23 types of commercial EDF. No Enterobacteria spp. and Listeria spp. were found in all EDF products. However, common aerobic bacteria (3.24~3.85 Log CFU/g) were found in EDF, namely, Pueraria lobata, Chamaemelum nobile, Acacia decurrens, Rhododendron mucronulatum Turcz, Oenothera lamarckiana, Brassica napus, and Prunus serrulata. Staphylococcus aureus was found in 11 and Salmonella sp. was found in 8 of the 23 EDFs. Considering the cold extraction of EDF for tea and beverages, the regulation of pathogenic bacteria in EDFs is necessary. No heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, and As were found in all EDFs, except the dry flower of Hemerocallis fulva, which contained Pb at 0.08 ppm. Different pesticides and fungicides were found in EDFs, but their concentrations were very low (0.01~0.08 ppm) and below the maximal residue level. Only the dry flower of Chrysanthemum morifolium had a high content of chlorpyrifos (0.215 ppm), which is long-lasting pesticide. Our results suggest that the establishment of EDF regulations for pesticide residue, culture separation between edible and garden flowers, and guidelines for preventing pathogenic microbial contamination are necessary.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1013-1013
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• 2022

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2014

This study was designed to investigate the in vitro antioxidant potentials and the antioxidant components of 80% ethanolic extracts prepared from five edible spring flowers. The contents of total phenols (14.1-18.9 mg gallic acid equivalents/g of dry weight; DW), flavonoids (0.3-4.9 mg catechin equivalents), total carotenoids ($1.9-578.1{\mu}g$ ${\beta}$-carotene equivalents), and proanthocyanidins (2.8-23.5 mg catechin equivalents), were determined by spectrophotometry. In addition, the content of ascorbic acid (0.71-1.31 mg) was determined using HPLC with UV detection. All varieties of the flower examined showed antioxidant potential (1.2-46.1 mM Trolox equivalents/g DW), which was measured by the radical scavenging activity and the reducing power. Of the five flowers analyzed, Prunus avium L. showed the highest antioxidant activity. A strong correlation was found between the ascorbic acid ($r^2=0.75$), flavonoids ($r^2=0.71$), and total phenolic content ($r^2=0.64$) and the antioxidant parameters, suggesting that these components are likely significant contributors to the antioxidant capacity of the five spring flowers.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.42-47
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• 2023

Carthamus tinctorius L. (known as safflower) is a valuable oil plant whose importance is increasing rapidly in the world due to its high adaptation to arid regions. The seeds of this unique plant are especially used in edible oil, soap, paint, varnish and lacquer production. Its flowers are used in vegetable dye production and medicinal purposes beside its features as a coloring and flavoring in food. After the oil is removed, the remaining pulp and plant parts are used as animal feed, and dry straw residues are used as fuel. Beside all these features, its usage as a herbal medicinal plants for various diseases has gained importance on recent years. In this study, it was designed a plant metabolomic approach which transfers all the recent data processing strategies of untargeted metabolomics in clinical applications to the present study. Q-TOF LC/MS-based analysis of the extracts (70% ethanol, hexane, and chloroform) for both seed and flowers was performed using a C18 column (Agilent Zorbax 1.8 µM, 100 × 2.1 mm). Differences were observed in seed and fruit extracts and these differences were visualized using principal component analysis (PCA) plots. The total number and intersections of the peaks in the extracts were visualized using peak count comparison graph. Based on the experimental results, the number of the detected peaks for seeds was higher than the ones for the flowers for all solvent systems to extract the samples.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.701-707
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• 2016

The charantin contents of leaves, stems, female and male flowers, and fruits in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) were analyzed at different harvest seasons to investigate the availability of potential edible parts other than fruits. The charantin contents of fruits ranged from 14.7 to $16.0mg{\cdot}g^{-1}$ dry weight (DW) and those of leaves ranged from 131.4 to $138.0mg{\cdot}g^{-1}DW$, which was eight times higher than in fruits. The charantin contents of female and male flowers and stems were also significantly higher than those of the fruits. The ratio of total charantin content was highest in leaves (48%) of DW, followed by female flowers (20-21%), male flowers (14%), stems (12-13%), and fruits (5%). The charantin contents of fruits harvested 14 days after fruit setting was higher in June to mid-July (20.2 to $23.3mg{\cdot}g^{-1}DW$) than in late July to late August (13.3 to $19.4mg{\cdot}g^{-1}DW$). The higher the fruit weight, the lower the charantin contents, which showed that a negative correlation exists between fruit weight and charantin contents in bitter gourd. These results suggest that to obtain bitter gourd fruits with high charantin contents, fruits should be harvested until mid-July when fruit growth is fast and temperature is high. In addition, leaves, stems, and female and male flowers of bitter gourd can be used as for food, which are known to reduce blood sugar level.