• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.19.1-19.11
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• 2018

Background: Traditionally, East-Asians (Korea, Japan, and China) utilize seaweeds as a food source and ingredient in traditional medicine. Korea is one of the biggest seaweed producer and consumer in the global trade. Especially, side dishes made from seaweeds are very popular in the traditional Korean cuisines. Seaweeds are popular as fresh vegetable salads and soup or eaten as snacks. Main body: Seaweeds are rich in essential nutrients, minerals, and vitamins as well as a promising source of novel bioactive compounds. The compounds (polysaccharides, polyphenols, and sterols) present in the edible Korean seaweeds possess important bioactive properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammation, anticancer, anti-diabetic, and anticoagulant properties. Thus, the long-term consumption of seaweed has a potential to reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and inflammation-related complications. However, seaweed consumption is limited to the small population around the globe. Thus, it is important to increase the awareness of the health benefits of seaweeds consumption among the general population. Short conclusion: In the present study, we discussed some popular green and red edible Korean seaweeds and their health-promoting properties. This study might be useful to increase the public awareness of the consumption of seaweed as a food source.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2006

Mineral and heavy metal contents were determined in three brown edible seaweeds (sea mustard, Undaria pinnatifida; seaweed fusiforme, Hizikia fusiforme; sea tangle, Laminaria japonica) collected from Gijang and Wando in Korea, and two green seaweeds (sea lettuce, Enteromorpha prolifera; green laver, Monostroma nitidum) collected from Gijang. Seaweeds contained high proportions of ash (13.8-24.8%) and sulfate (1.08-3.25%). In brown seaweeds, ash contents (24.5-24.8%) were higher than in green seaweeds (13.8-15.2%). The differences of mineral contents were remarkable in both Gijang and Wando and in 5 various kinds of seaweeds. Brown seaweeds contained higher amounts of both macro-minerals (657-13,947 mg/100 g; Ca, Mg, Na, K) and trace elements (0.27-12.98 mg/100 g; Fe, Al, Zn, Mn, Cr, Cu, Ni), and green seaweeds also had relatively higher amounts of both macro-minerals (233-5,279 mg/100 g) and trace elements (0.26-10.61 mg/100 g).

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.421-427
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• 2010

To isolate natural antihypertensive substances from edible seaweeds, we screened for and separated active compounds contained in natural Underia pinnatifida, cultural Underia pinnatifida, Laminaria japonica, Sporophylls and Agarum cribrosum. They were extracted using room temperature water, boiling water, acetone, and methanol in turn or using room temperature water, ether, acetone, methanol and boiling water in order. The in vitro antihypertensive activity was quantified as inhibitory efficacy against angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE), which is a factor inducing hypertension. For all of the seaweeds tested, the fractions soluble in room temperature water and in boiling water showed the strongest ACE inhibitory effect among the extracted fractions. Conversely, the methanol-extracted fractions for all of the seaweeds tested showed no antihypertensive activity. While the ether and acetone fractions had slight antihypertensive effects. The compounds in the aqueous extracts that had antihypertensive activity were presumed to be polysaccharides, such as fucoidan and alginate.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.111-117
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• 2021

The study was aimed at developing an alternative therapeutic agent against acne vulgaris, one of the most common skin diseases, to meet the continuing demand for new therapies. Acne vulgaris is often associated with the acne-causing bacteria such as Cutibacterium acnes. To investigate the safety of agents against acne vulgaris, we evaluated the potential antibacterial activities of edible seaweeds against C. acnes in Korea. Forty-one edible seaweeds, including the brown, green, and red varieties, were selected for the antibacterial test. In comparison with other seaweeds, 70% ethanolic extracts of brown seaweeds, such as Cladophora wrightiana var. minor, Eisenia bicyclis, Ecklonia cava, Ishige foliacea, Ishige okamurae, Sargassum filicinum, and Sargassum miyabei Yendo, exhibited potential antibacterial activity against C. acnes with minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging between 64 and 128 ㎍/mL. To investigate the active anti-acne agents and to enhance our understanding of the antibacterial activities against C. acnes, further solvent-fractionation experiments are warranted. The findings imply that brown seaweeds can be a potential source of natural agents against acne vulgaris.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.836-843
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• 2022

In the present study, exposure to heavy metals by consumption of edible seaweeds (green laver, laver, hijiki, sea tangle, and sea mustard) was assessed based on their concentrations of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg). The mean of heavy metal concentrations were 0.006-0.023 mg/kg for Pb, 0.037-0.156 mg/kg for Cd, 1.117-15.928 mg/kg for As, and 0.008-0.021 mg/kg for Hg. In multivariate analysis, the correlations were high between Pb levels in sea mustard, Cb levels in laver, and As and Hg level in Hijiki. However, the estimated daily intake and target hazard quotient (THQ) of the heavy metals in edible seaweeds were below their approved limits suggesting no health risks associated with seaweed consumption by Koreans.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.1464-1470
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• 2005

To assure the safety of the major edible seaweeds, we collected the 176 samples of seaweeds such as laver(Porphyra sp.), sea mustard (Undaria pinnatifida), sea tangle (Laminaria japonica) and sea lettuce (Enter-omorph sp.) from Korean coast. We investigated the contents of the trace metals in the edible seaweeds, and the values were expressed as the dry weight of sea weeds. The mean levels of the trace metals were high in the oder of Zn ($36.19{\pm}27.14 \;{\mu}g/g$), Mn ($28.75{\pm}28.03\;{\mu}g/g$), and Cu ($6.82{\pm}7.62\;{\mu}g/g$), which are necessary metals in the human body, and then followed by Cr ($1.54{\pm}2.07\;{\mu}g/g$), Ni ($1.29{\pm}2.57\;{\mu}g/g$), Pb ($0.89{\pm}1.11\;{\mu}g/g$), Cd ($0.72{\pm}0.80\;{\mu}g/g$) and Hg ($0.01{\pm}0.02\;{\mu}g/g$). The contents of Cd and Zn were high in the laver, Cr, Ni and Pb were detected highly in sea lettuce, and Hg was detected highly in sea tangle. Significant linear correlations were obtained among 28 different pairs of metals, some of them highly correlated (r>0.5, p<0.05),such as Ni-Mn, Zn-Ni, Cu-Pb and Cu-Zn in laver, Ni-Zn in sea mustard, Cu-Pb, Cu-Zn and Mn-Pb in sea tangle, and Ni-Cr in sea lettuce. And, the trace metal contents of seaweeds varied with parts and kinds of samples. The average weekly intakes of Hg, Cd and Pb from seaweeds were about $0.07{\~}3.57\%$ of PTWI (Provisional Tolerable Weekly Intakes) which has set by FAO/WHO to evaluate the safeties of trace metals in food. Therefore, it was found that they showed very safe levels in the edible seaweeds.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1640-1647
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• 2010

Seaweeds have been recognized as a health food, having anti-obesity, anti-constipation and anticoagulation activities, and the use of seaweeds in the food, medicine, and cosmetic industries have recently significantly increased. In this study, methanol extracts were prepared from 35 different seaweeds (17 phaeophyta, 11 rhodophyta and 7 chlorophyta), and thrombin time (TT), prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were determined in order to develop safe and novel anticoagulation agents from natural products. In TT experiments, Ecklonia cava, Ecklonia stolonifera, Eisenia bicyclis (Kjellman) Setchell, Ishige foliacea, I. okamurai, Sargassum confusum and S. yamade showed strong thrombin inhibition activity among the 35 different seaweeds. In PT experiments, the inhibitions of prothrombin were identified in the selected seaweeds from TT experiment, with the exception of S. yamade. In aPTT experiments, the seaweeds with blood coagulation inhibition factors were E. cava, E. stolonifera, E. bicyclis (Kjellman) Setchell, I. foliacea, I. okamurai, S. confusum and Hixikia fusiforme Okamura. Further anticoagulation assay with the selected 8 seaweeds suggested that S. confusum is most effective in antithrombosis, and E. stolonifera, E. bicyclis (Kjellman) Setchell, and I. foliacea have high potential as antithrombosis agents. Based on components-activity correlation analysis, flavonoids are considered as active anticoagulation components of seaweeds These results suggest that edible seaweeds, especially S. confusum, have potential as safe and novel anticoagulants, and S. yamade and H. fusiforme Okamura could be used as a thrombin-specific and coagulation factor-specific inhibitors.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2023

The control of intestinal α-amylase and α-glucosidase is an effective therapeutic strategy for prevention of post-prandial hyperglycemia associated with diabetes mellitus. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-diabetes activities of Korean edible seaweed against α-amylase and α-glucosidase, two carbolytic enzymes involved in serum glucose regulation. Of the 41 species initially screened, Cladophora wrightiana var. minor, Eisenia bicyclis, Ecklonia cava, Ishige foliacea, and Ishige okamurae exhibited the strongest inhibitory activities from brown seaweeds. Asparagopsis taxiformis showed the strongest inhibitory effects from red seaweeds. The results of this study suggest that the crude brown seaweed extracts (C. wrightiana var. minor, E. bicyclis, E. cava, I. foliacea, and I. okamurae) and crude red seaweed extracts (A. taxiformis) may have beneficial effects suppressing the rise in postprandial hyperglycemia through the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to find out and advocate the intake of vitamin A and C rich foods in Korean people. Forty kinds of vitamin A and C rich foods were selected by the vitamin quantity in 100g edible portion. in single serving size. and by the 1997 national food supply data. The results were summarized as follows. 1. The vitamin A rich foods 1) The food sources of vitamin A presented in the middle and high school home economics textbooks were liver. egg/egg yolk. milk/dairy products. and green and yellow vegetables. etc. 2) The vitamin A rich foods by 100g edible portion ere in order of red pepper(dried). laver(dried). carrot. meat edible viscera. eel. etc. And the vitamin A rich foods by the vitamin A content in single serving size were in order of carrot. eel. meat edible viscera. water shield. red pepper(dried). etc. 3) The vitamin A suppling foods according to the 1997 national food supply data were in order of red pepper(dried). meat edible viscera. laver. carrot. etc. The green and yellow vegetables. fish and shellfish. and seaweeds were the most important sources of vitamin A in Korean. 2. The vitamin C rich foods 1) The food sources of vitamin C presented in the textbooks of middle and high school were strawberry. citrus fruits. and vegetables such as spinach. chinese cabbage. radish. crown daisy. etc. 2) The vitamin C rich foods on the basis of the vitamin C content in 100g edible portion were in order of sweet pepper. goose berry. citron. strawberry. water shield. etc. And the vitamin C rich foods by the quantity in single serving size were in order of strawberry. goose berry. citron. sweet pepper. lemon. etc. 3) The vitamin C suppling foods according to the 1997 national food supply data were in order of chinese cabbage. radish. citrus fruits. strawberry. etc. Not only vegetables and fruits but also seaweeds like dried laver and sea mustard were the most important source of vitamin C in korean.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.468-473
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• 2024

The tyrosinase inhibition effects of 23 marine-derived seaweeds harvested in Korea were screened to determine their potential as skin-whitening agents. Of the 23 species initially screened, the total phenolic (TP) content of brown, green, and red seaweeds were 7.62-280.11, 5.24-62.37, and 0.63-28.76 phloroglucinol equivalents (PGE) mg/g, respectively. Brown seaweed extracts exhibited much stronger inhibitory activities than green and red seaweed extracts. Among the brown seaweeds, Ecklonia cava had the highest TP content (280.11 PGE mg/g) and the strongest tyrosinase inhibitory effect with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) value of 4.38 ㎍/mL. The kinetics of tyrosinase inhibition, analyzed by Lineweaver-Burk plots, found E. cava extract to be a non-competitive inhibitor. This study's results indicated that E. cava's inhibition of tyrosinase may have potential applications in the cosmetic industry.