• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2014

The moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) plant is used as food and as an anti-allergic agent. In this study, we studied the inhibitory effect of moringa root extract on the expression of PMA-induced matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), which is the main factor implicated in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells in MCF-7 cells. At first, various moringa extracts were examined in the MCF-7 cells. Both moringa root extract and leaf extracts inhibited PMA-induced MMP-9 activity, but the root extract suppressed PMA-induced MMP-9 activity to a greater extent than the leaf extract. The moringa root extract also inhibited PMA-induced MMP-9 protein expression and cell invasion. According to RT-PCR, the treatment of the MCF-7 cells with moringa root extract decreased levels of PMA-induced MMP-9 mRNA expression, but not the expression of TIMP-1 and -2, indicating that moringa root extract prevents the transcription of MMP-9 in response to PMA. In addition, moringa root extract specifically suppressed the phosphorylation of ERK/JNK, but not p38. We suggest that moringa root extract abolishes MMP-9 activity/expression through ERK/JNK. In conclusion, moringa root extract suppressed PMA-induced MMP-9 activity/expression by inhibiting the phosphorylation of ERK/JNK in MCF-7 cells. These results indicate that moringa root extract may be a potential antimetastatic and anti-invasive agent. Future clinical research is needed on the anticancer properties of moringa root extract.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1130-1136
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• 2017

Traditionally, the larvae of Allomyrina dichotoma (AD), a species of the rhinoceros beetle, have been widely used for their antidiabetic, antihepatofibrotic, antineoplastic, and antiobesity effects. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has reported on the possibility of using edible insects in human dietary supplements in the future. However, despite the growing interest in insect-based bio-active products, the biological activities of these products have rarely been studied. Previously, we reported that AD larvae inhibit the in vitro differentiation of adipocytes via transcription factor downregulation. In this study, our objective was to evaluate the effects of a hot-water extract of AD larvae on allergy and inflammation. To investigate the inhibitory effect of the extract on allergic reactions, we measured the levels of ${\beta}-hexosaminidase$, tumor necrosis $factor-{\alpha}$ ($TNF-{\alpha}$), interleukin-4 (IL-4), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) after activation of RBL-2H3 cells using Compound 48/80. In addition, the inhibitory effect of the extract on inflammation was determined using Raw 264.7 cells after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. The extract significantly inhibited the ${\beta}-hexosaminidase$, $TNF-{\alpha}$, IL-4, and COX-2 levels in RBL-2H3 cells. Furthermore, it effectively inhibited the inflammatory cytokine IL-6, nitric oxide, and inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in LPS-stimulated Raw 264.7 cells. These results suggest that AD larval extract can be potentially developed as an antiallergic and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agent.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.65-86
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• 1990

Living conditions of the rural elderly were assessed in terms of clothing behavior, health and nutritional status, housing and envioronmental condition, and psychological adjustment. The subjects were eighty individuals over sixty residing in the rural community of Iksan-kun, Chollabukdo. The interview method using questionnaires, direct measurement, and observation was used for this study. Data were compared with those obtained from a previous study of the elderly residing in an urban area. Clothing behavior showed that the elderly residing in the rural community were more concerned about plain and conservative design of clothes than their urban counterparts. Special protective clothes for cropdusting with agricultural chemicals had not been prepared. The following urgent needs were pointed out: development and supply of agricultural chemical protective clothing and development and education of appropriate washing and clothing care methods. The health status of the elderly was generally good, but poor eating habits were found more frequently in the rural elderly than among the urban dwellers. Several dietary nutrient intakes were insufficient. Contrasting the urban elderly with the rural group, it was found that the urban group lacked sufficient vitamin A and vitamin C and the urban women had insufficient calorie whereas the rural group was deficient in protein, vitamin A, calorie, and fat. A significant relationship was found between dietary nutrient intake and health index, food habit points, self recognized health status, meal satisfaction, and economic status. Urgent needs of the development of a nutrition education program for the elderly were pointed out. Most of elderly residing in the surveyed rural communities were living alone or with their spouse only, therefore only one room was used among the three or four available rooms. Most of the rural elderly were living either in a traditional Korean house built with differing floor levels or in a modified Korean style house. Minimal modernization had been made for kitchen facilities such as sink and gas range or for heating facilities with the briquette boiler. However, sanitary space such as lavatory and bathroom had not been remodeled. A housing welfare program for rural communities should be implemented at the national level. The comparison of psychological characteristics of the rural elderly with their city counterparts revealed that the rural elderly have a more stable psychological status and optimistic attitude than those living in a city. However, it was found that most of the elderly did not have any future plan. Community programs for the elderly including hobbies or leisure activities or education programs to generate close interpersonal relationships with their children should be developed and provided.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2016

Objectives Despite the increasing use of Ja-ha-guh (Hominis-placenta ) pharmacopuncture in rehabilitative medicine field, its standard compound has yet to be investigated. The purpose of this study is to provide standardization for future studies and increase satisfaction of patients by utilizing standard pharmacopuncture. Methods Alanine and leucine were selected as potential standard compounds. LC/MS was used to devise an analytic method. This analytic method was subject to validation. According to validation guideline of Korea Food and Drug Administration, the specificity, linearity, precision, range, quantitative limits, detection limits and accuracy were measured. With this analysis, 3 lots of Ja-ha-guh pharmacopuncture were analyzed. Results Because the specificity, linearity, precision, range, quantitative limits, detection limits and accuracy meet criteria of the guideline, the analytic method was validated. It was found that Ja-ha-guh pharmacopuncture contained $211.02{\pm}7.28ug/ml$ of alanine and $372.03{\pm}7.58ug/ml$ of leucine. Conclusions Both alanine and leucine appear to be suitable standard compounds. These results are likely to contribute to further standardization of Ja-ha-guh for medical use.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to make an evaluation on menu selection and satisfaction levels of the tourists who visit Korean restaurants in Busan. This study aims to propose general, strategic plans for improving the menu quality management of Korean restaurants in the future and find out measures to make restaurant users satisfied and revisit. A survey was conducted on ordinary people who had visited Korean restaurants in tourist hotels in Busan. A total of 310 copies of questionnaire were distributed to them from September 1 to 30, 2008. The SPSS/PC+ for Window 12.0 was used for data processing and analysis. As a result, it was found that selection attributes of Korean restaurant menu had an effect on customer satisfaction and revisit intention, and the most influential factors were health and menu designs. These days, people are getting more interested in keeping in shape with the Well-being trend. Such a modern trend is an important factor when selecting menu items. Therefore, when menu management is considered, health-related factors need to be considered more than anything else. In addition, various and unique menu items need to be designed to draw people's curiosity and make customers revisit.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.355-365
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• 2015

As the global climate has dramatically changed over the past decades, there has been active research on evaluating its effects on food security, which has been recognized as one of the most important issues in the field. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the climate change on the Korean agriculture using meta-analysis methods. Especially, our research focus is on estimating the effect of CO2 concentration and two adaptations (planting-date and cultivar adjustments)on rice that accounts for a larger proportion of the Korean domestic agriculture. Unlike traditional general meta-analysis methods that use summary statistics of effects of interest, meta analysis specific to the agriculture literature was conducted by integrating the data on rice yield that were generated under various CO2 emission scenarios and general circulating models of the 6 collected individual studies. As a modeling approach, the rice yield change ratio was set as the dependent variable and the main and interaction effects of CO2 concentration and adaptation were considered as independent variables in a regression model, As a result, CO2 is estimated to have opposite effects on rice yield depending on whether any of the two adaptations is applied or not; decreasing effect without adaptation and increasing effect with adaptation. In addition, it turns out that the cultivar adjustment has a higher increasing effect on rice yield than the planting-date adjustment. The results of the study are expected to be used as basic quantitative data for establishing responsive polices to the future climate changes.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.426-432
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• 2013

The results of the content of total polyphenol and flavonoid, DPPH (1-1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) radical scavenging activity, ABTS [2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)] radical scavenging activity, nitrite scavenging activity and SOD-like activity of methanol extracts from immature cotton boll are follows. The contents of total polyphenol and flavonoid compound were higher in small size cotton boll, and DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity also showed a relatively high activity in the small size. These results indicate that there is a correlation between phenol content and DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS radical scavenging. The test concentrations of immature cotton boll extract for measuring DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities were set as 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 mg/ml. Immature cotton boll has high radical scavenging activity at the concentration of 1.25~20 mg/ml and the result showed a tendency to increase in a concentration-dependent. The nitrite scavenging activity showed high activity in the pH 1.2, and the result in the pH 4.2 showed progressively less active, and in the pH 6.0 near neutral was confirmed that does not affect the nitrite scavenging. In addition, SOD-like activity showed somewhat lower activity compared with ascorbic acid, but tended to be higher when compared with the results of the other natural substances. Through this experiment, we confirmed that immature cotton boll was excellent antioxidant activity. Therefore, it is demonstrated that the cotton suggest the possibility of development of new material for cosmetic product or functional food in the future, and is expected to make a greater usability.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.548-556
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of antioxidant enzyme activity and radical scavenging activities of cucumber grown greenhouse. The analytic method of antioxidant activities were measured by estimating DPPH free radical scavenging, nitrite scavenging ability activity and ABTS radical scavenging ability. The DPPH free radical scavenging activity of Jangjukcheongjang was the highest in most of the growth stage. The Nitrite scavenging ability at pH 1.2 was more than 40% in all cultivars and growth stages. The ABTS radical scavenging ability of Jangjukcheongjang and Nulpureuncheongjang showed relatively little higher than Janghyeongnakhap and Sinjoeunbaekdadagi. The SOD activity showed higher activity than 95% in all cultivars and growth stages. The activity of CAT was highest in the Nulpureuncheongjang of 2 (12~16cm) growth stage, and the APX activity of Nulpureuncheongjang and Janghyeongnakhap showed a relatively high activity. The POX activity showed distinctly different trends depending on the growth stage, and that is, the activity at harvest stage was significantly reduced. These results suggest that the cucumber had the potent biological activities, and that in the future, the availability of cucumber will be increase in the field of high-value cosmetic and food products.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2017

Background: Chong-Myung-Tang (CMT) extract is widely used in Korea as a traditional herbal tonic for increasing memory capacity in high-school students and also for numerous body ailments since centuries. The use of CMT to improve the learning capacity has been attributed to various plant constituents, especially black ginseng, in it. Therefore, in this study, we have first investigated whether black ginseng-enriched CMT extracts affected spatial learning using the Morris water maze (MWM) test. Their molecular mechanism of action underlying improvement of learning and memory was examined in vitro. Methods: We used two types of black ginseng-enriched CMT extracts, designated as CM-1 and CM-2, and evaluated their efficacy in the MWM test for spatial learning behavior and their anti-inflammatory effects in BV2 microglial cells. Results: Our results show that both black ginseng-enriched CMT extracts improved the learning behavior in scopolamine-induced impairment in the water maze test. Moreover, these extracts also inhibited nitric oxide production in BV2 cells, with significant suppression of expression of proinflammatory cytokines, especially inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase-2, and $interleukin-1{\beta}$. The protein expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase and nuclear $factor-{\kappa}B$ pathway factors was also diminished by black ginseng-enriched CMT extracts, indicating that it not only improves the memory impairment, but also acts a potent anti-inflammatory agent for neuroinflammatory diseases. Conclusion: Our research for the first time provides the scientific evidence that consumption of black ginseng-enriched CMT extract as a brain tonic improves memory impairment. Thus, our study results can be taken as a reference for future neurobehavioral studies.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.973-982
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• 2020

In this study, we examined inhibition of adipocyte differentiation associated with the administration of camphor, a substance identified in extracts of the flowering plant Chrysanthemum indicum L. (CI). No camphor-mediated cytotoxicity was observed over a period of 1-10 days in studies targeting cells of the 3T3-L1 adipocyte-like line. Experiments that featured siRNA-mediated suppression of the transmembrane proteins Patched (PTCH) and Smoothened (SMO) resulted in inhibition and activation of differentiation, respectively. Interestingly, inhibition of PTCH typically activates SMO protein targeting and serves to activate hedgehog (HH)-mediated signaling. The results of our study suggest that activation of HH-mediated signaling can inhibit adipocyte differentiation. Furthermore, expression of glioma-associated oncogene homologue 1 (Gli1) was detected by flow cytometry in 62.7±1.5% of cells in response to administration of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (KCTC 3237) and in 60.4±2.2% of cells in response to camphor; these levels are higher than those detected in undifferentiated controls (24.9±3.1%). No change in the state of fermented camphor was identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), but a 15.41% quantitative increase was confirmed in KCTC 3237. Overall, we conclude that administration of camphor resulted in overexpression of SMO and modulated the differential expression of Gli1. Animal studies focused on the impact of camphor as an agent to counteract obesity might be considered in the future. Indeed, camphor and similar physiologically active compounds from fermented CI might be developed as new and effective treatments for obesity.