• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.495-510
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• 2017

This study was to investigate the antioxidant activities of Cryptomeria japonica leaves extracts such as essential oil, methanol extract and hot water extract and to evaluate its potential as a natural antioxidant. Antioxidant activities of extracts were evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging activity, FRAP activity, zanthin oxidase inhibitory activity, and iron ion chelate activity, comparing with the positive controls. According to the results, methanol and hot water extracts showed higher antioxidant activities than essential oil. This fact suggested that terpenoids have lower antioxidant effect than phenolic compounds which were found in methanol and hot water extracts. Especially, acetone and water soluble fractions of methanol extract and ethanol fraction of hot water extract contained a lot of phenolic compounds and hydroxyl group, indicating that many hydroxyl groups and glycosidic bonds showed higher antioxidant effect than the other fractions. These results can suggest that the phenolic compounds which contained hydroxyl group or glycosidic bonds have a certain role for effective antioxidant activities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2017

Out of twenty common protein amino acids, there are many kinds of non protein amino acids (NPAAs) that exist as secondary metabolites and exert ecological functions in plants. Mimosine (Mim), one of those NPAAs derived from L. leucocephala acts as an iron chelator and reversely block mammalian cell cycle at G1/S phases. Cysteine (Cys) is decisive for protein and glutathione that acts as an indispensable sulfur grantor for methionine and many other sulfur-containing secondary products. Cys biosynthesis includes consecutive two steps using two enzymes-serine acetyl transferase (SAT) and O-acetylserine (thiol)lyase (OASTL) and appeared in plant cytosol, chloroplast, and mitochondria. In the first step, the acetylation of the ${\beta}$-hydroxyl of L-serine by acetyl-CoA in the existence of SAT and finally, OASTL triggers ${\alpha}$, ${\beta}$-elimination of acetate from OAS and bind $H_2S$ to catalyze the synthesis of Cys. Mimosine synthase, one of the isozymes of the OASTLs, is able to synthesize Mim with 3-hydroxy-4-pyridone (3H4P) instead of $H_2S$ for Cys in the last step. Thus, the aim of this study was to clone and characterize the cytosolic (Cy) OASTL gene from L. leucocephala, express the recombinant OASTL in Escherichia coli, purify it, do enzyme kinetic analysis, perform docking dynamics simulation analysis between the receptor and the ligands and compare its performance between Cys and Mim synthesis. Cy-OASTL was obtained through both directional degenerate primers corresponding to conserved amino acid region among plant Cys synthase family and the purified protein was 34.3KDa. After cleaving the GST-tag, Cy-OASTL was observed to form mimosine with 3H4P and OAS. The optimum Cys and Mim reaction pH and temperature were 7.5 and $40^{\circ}C$, and 8.0 and $35^{\circ}C$ respectively. Michaelis constant (Km) values of OAS from Cys were higher than the OAS from Mim. Inter fragment interaction energy (IFIE) of substrate OAS-Cy-OASTL complex model showed that Lys, Thr81, Thr77 and Gln150 demonstrated higher attraction force for Cys but 3H4P-mimosine synthase-OAS intermediate complex showed that Gly230, Tyr227, Ala231, Gly228 and Gly232 might provide higher attraction energy for the Mim. It may be concluded that Cy-OASTL demonstrates a dual role in biosynthesis both Cys and Mim and extending the knowledge on the biochemical regulatory mechanism of mimosine and cysteine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.63-63
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• 2003

Opuntia ficus-indicavar. saboten Makino (Cactaceae) is a tropical or subtropical plant that has been widely used as folk medicine for the treatment of diabetes, asthma, burn, edema and gastritis. The purposes of the present study were to identify antioxidant constituents from fruits and stems of the plant cultivated in Cheju island, Korea, and examine their in vitro neuroprotective activities. Using a chromatographic fractionation method, ten chemical constituents were isolated from ethyl acetate extracts. By means of chemical and spectroscopic methods, those were identified as eight flavonoids such as kaempherol (a), quercetin (b), kaempferol 3-methyl ether (c), quercetin 3-methyl ether (d), narcissin (e), dihydrokaernpferol (f), dihydroquercetin (g) and erioclictyol (h), and two terpenoids such as 3-oxo-${\alpha}$-ionol-${\beta}$-d-glucopyranoside (i) and roseoside (j). Among the isolated compounds, comrounds c~e and h~j were those reported for the first titre from the plant. Compounds b, d and g showed DPPH free radical scavenging activities with IC$\sub$50/ values of 28, 19 and 31, ${\mu}$M respectively. Compounds d and g also inhibited iron-dependent lipid peroxidation with IC$\sub$50/ values of 2.4 and 3.5 ${\mu}$M. In a primary rat cortical neuronal cell culture system, compounds b, d and g inhibited xanthine/xanthine oxidase-induced (IC$\sub$50/ values of 18.2, 2.1 and 54.6 ${\mu}$M) and H$_2$O$_2$-induced (IC$\sub$50/ values of 13.6, 1.9 and 25.7 ${\mu}$M) cytotoxicities. In addition, compounds d and g inhibited NMDA-induced excitotoxicity by 21 and 33%, and only compound d inhibited growth factor withdrawal-induced apoptosis by 31% at a tested concentration of 3 ${\mu}$M. The results suggest that the antioxidant constituents with in vitroneuroprotective activities may serve as lead chemicals for the development of neuroprotective agent.