• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.773-783
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• 2023

Background: Gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea, is one of the major fungal diseases in agriculture. Biological methods are preferred over chemical fungicides to control gray mold since they are less toxic to the environment and could induce the resistance to pathogens in plants. In this work, we try to understand if ginseng defense to B. cinerea could be induced by fungal hypovirulent strain △BcSpd1. BcSpd1 encodes Zn(II)₂Cys₆ transcription factor which regulates fungal pathogenicity and we recently reported △BcSpd1 mutants reduced fungal virulence. Methods: We performed transcriptomic analysis of the host to investigate the induced defense response of ginseng treated by B. cinerea △BcSpd1. The metabolites in ginseng flavonoids pathway were determined by UPLC-ESI-MS/MS and the antifungal activates were then performed. Results: We found that △BcSpd1 enhanced the ginseng defense response when applied to healthy ginseng leaves and further changed the metabolism of flavonoids. Compared with untreated plants, the application of △BcSpd1 on ginseng leaves significantly increased the accumulation of p-coumaric acid and myricetin, which could inhibit the fungal growth. Conclusion: B. cinerea △BcSpd1 could effectively induce the medicinal plant defense and is referred to as the biological control agent in ginseng disease management.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.04a
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• pp.119-119
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• 2019

Pinus densiflora, the Korean Red Pine, is the predominant tree species of the cool, temperate forests of northeast Asia, occurring in pure stands across Korea, Japan, and parts of northern China and Russia. Pinus densiflora leaves, pollen, and bark have been widely used for traditional medicine, or edible purposes. However, pine cones contain many bioactive phytochemicals, but they are rarely used as natural raw materials. This study was conducted to evaluated the anti-inflammatory effect of pine cone extracts and its possbility of natural sources were evaluated. Pine cones were extracted with 80% methanol, concentrated and then partitioned with ethyl acetate, and the organic layer was used as a sample. The Pine cone Ethyl acetate Fraction (PEF) showed no toxicity to RAW 264.7 cells at a concentration of less than $50{\mu}g/ml$. PEF inhibited the production of nitric oxide (NO) in RAW 264.7 cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Also, It suppressed the expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and transcription of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-${\kappa}B$). These results suggest that pine cones can be used as an effective natural material for anti-inflammatory agent.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.506-518
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• 2020

Background: Red-skin root of Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) significantly reduces the quality and limits the production of ginseng in China. The disease has long been thought to be a noninfectious physiological disease, except one report that proved it was an infectious disease. However, the causal agents have not been successfully determined. In the present study, we were to reveal the pathogens that cause red-skin disease. Methods: Ginseng roots with red-skin root symptoms were collected from commercial fields in Northeast China. Fungi were isolated from the lesion and identified based on morphological characters along with multilocus sequence analyses on internal transcription spacer, β-tubulin (tub2), histone H3 (his3), and translation elongation factor 1α (tef-1α). Pathogens were confirmed by inoculating the isolates in ginseng roots. Results: A total of 230 isolates were obtained from 209 disease samples. These isolates were classified into 12 species, including Dactylonectria sp., D. hordeicola, Fusarium acuminatum, F. avenaceum, F. solani, F. torulosum, Ilyonectria mors-panacis, I. robusta, Rhexocercosporidium panacis, and three novel species I. changbaiensis, I. communis, and I. qitaiheensis. Among them, I. communis, I. robusta, and F. solani had the highest isolation frequencies, being 36.1%, 20.9%, and 23.9%, respectively. All these species isolated were pathogenic to ginseng roots and caused red-skin root disease under appropriate condition. Conclusion: Fungal complex is the causal agent of red-skin root in P. ginseng.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.123-134
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• 2020

Background: The lepidopteran Asiatic corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenee), has caused huge economic losses throughout the Asian-Western Pacific region. Usually, chemical pesticides are used for the control, but excessive use of pesticides has caused great harm. Therefore, the inartificial ecotypic pesticides to ACB are extremely essential. In our previous study, we found that panaxadiol saponins (PDS) can effectively reduce the harm of ACB by causing antifeedant activity. Therefore, it is necessary to reveal the biological molecular changes in ACB and the functionary mechanism of PDS. Methods: We analyzed the global transcription of ACB with different PDS concentration treatment (5 mg/mL, 10 mg/mL, and 25 mg/mL) by high-throughput sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly method. Results: PDS treatment could cause the changes of many gene expressions which regulate its signal pathways. The genes in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway were significantly downregulated, and then, the downstream fatty acid degradation pathway had also been greatly affected. Conclusion: Through this experiment, we hypothesized that the occurrence of antifeedant action of ACB is because the PDS brought about the downregulation of FATP and FABP, the key regulators in the PPAR, and the downregulation of FATP and FABP exerts further effects on the expression of SCD-1, ACBP, LPL, SCP-X, and ACO, which leads to the disorder of PPAR signaling pathway and the fatty acid degradation pathway. Not only that, PDS treatment leads to enzyme activity decrease by inhibiting the expression of genes associated with catalytic activity, such as cytochrome P450 and other similar genes.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.91-104
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• 2017

Acute bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are essentially lung inflammatory disorders. Various plant extracts and their constituents showed therapeutic effects on several animal models of lung inflammation. These include coumarins, flavonoids, phenolics, iridoids, monoterpenes, diterpenes and triterpenoids. Some of them exerted inhibitory action mainly by inhibiting the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and nuclear transcription $factor-{\kappa}B$ activation. Especially, many flavonoid derivatives distinctly showed effectiveness on lung inflammation. In this review, the experimental data for plant extracts and their constituents showing therapeutic effectiveness on animal models of lung inflammation are summarized.

• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.09a
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• pp.398-399
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• 2011

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.8-14
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• 2011

Although marine living organism contains a numerious number of compounds, it is difficult to collect these compounds in a large scale for medicinal application. However, in recent years, several bioactive compounds isolated from marine macroalgae have been proved to be able to provide potential sources for development of medicinal products because they can be obtained in large amount from marine. A number of studies have reported a variety of effects of marine macroalgae but a few anti-inflammatory activity of marine macroalgae have recently been published. Herein, we reviewed novel anti-inflammatory compounds recently isolated from marine brown algae, green algae and red algae. From this survey, in particular, some compounds contained in edible macroalgae exert anti-inflammatory effects with inhibition on cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity regulated by nuclear factor-kappa B transcription factor that play a key role in cancer as well as inflammation, demonstrating to be able to potentially apply to development of anti-inflammatory agent for chemoprevention of cancer. Furthermore, some macroalgae and their compounds with both excellent anti-inflammatory activity and very low toxicity can select a potential candidates capable of preventing or treating several chronic inflammation such as colitis, hepatitis and gastritis, leading to cancer.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.367-374
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• 2017

Background: An imbalance in energy intake and expenditure can cause obesity, which is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, cancers and hyperlipidemia. Methods and Results: In this study, we evaluated the anti-obesity effects of a water extract from the young leaves of barley sprout (BS) in 3T3-L1 cells and in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice (HF). Lipid accumulation measurement indicates that BS markedly inhibited adipogenesis by reducing lipid droplet production in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of adipogenic transcription factors peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-${\gamma}$ and fatty acid synthetase, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-${\alpha}$ and fatty acid binding protein 4 in 3T3-L1 cells was significantly inhibited by BS treatment. In an in vivo test, the BS-administered group of HFD-induced mice showed less body weight gain, and lower liver and epididymal white adipose tissue weights. The BS-treated mice showed decreased serum levels of leptin and lipids compared to untreated HFD mice and the levels of adiponectin and the HDL-cholesterol/total cholesterol ratio increased. These results indicate that BS inhibits body fat accumulation by reducing the mRNA expression of lipogenesis transcription factors and increasing serum adipokine concentration in in vitro and in vivo tests. Conclusions: BS reduced high fat diet-induced weight gain and had a positive effect on dyslipidemia.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.536-544
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• 2017

Abeliophyllum distichum Nakai is deciduous shrubs of flowering plant in Oleaceae. It is important plant resources and consists of one species in the world. Also the endemic plant of A. distichum has been protected and designed endangered plant in Korea. For this reason, study on the immature seeds of A. distichum (ADS) hasn't progressed. In the present study, we evaluated the antioxidant activity and inhibitory effects on proteins and mRNA levels were related in the whitening effect in B16F10 cells. ADS was effective for reaction oxygen species (ROS). ROS causes various diseases such as aging, inflammation, cancer, and etc. Antioxidant properties were evaluated DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging activity and Reducing power. Plants were known that contained phenolic compounds were related in antioxidant activity. Phenolic compounds were phytochemicals commonly named natural polyphenols. These are secondary metabolites of plants involved in the defense against different types of stresses. In results, ADS suppressed the expression and transcription of Tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2, and Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF). Tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TRP-1), tyrosinase-related protein 1 (TRP-2) are known to play an important role in melanin biosynthesis. MITF regulated the expression and transcription of Tyrosinase, TRP-1, and TRP-2. In conclusion, ADS was effective in both antioxidant activities and whitening effects. Also, they were associated with the content of phenolic compounds. We suggested that ADS can be use antioxidants and skin-whitening functional cosmetics material derived from natural plant resources.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.273-279
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• 2009

GATA-binding protein-3 (GATA-3) and T-box expressed in T-cells (T-bet) are now considered as master transcription factors involving Th cell differentiation, but the roles of these factors are still uncertain in vivo. This study was conducted to investigate the expression of these transcription factors in the liver damage induced by carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$) in rats. In this study, liver damage were induced with Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi water extracts (SBW) and followed for 4 weeks. The expression of GATA-3 and T-bet protein in liver damage induced by $CCl_4$ and the serum levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA), IgE were studied after 4 weeks of treatment. We found that effect of SBW on IFN-$\gamma$, STAT1, pSTAT1 and T-bet was decreased in vivo. Several genes were demonstrated to be IL-4 inducible prior to the discovery of STAT6. $CCl_4$+SBW group was significantly lower than $CCl_4$ group in IL-4, STAT6, pSTAT6 and GATA-3. Our data indicate that cytokine protein production were increased in $CCl_4$ group and $CCl_4$+SBW group. From these results, water extracts obtained from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi may have an immunoregulatory effect in the liver induced by $CCl_4$ of rats.