• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.157-163
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate the potential use of New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) as a new vegetable crop which will be cultivated in salt-affected soils such as reclaimed areas. New Zealand spinach ecotypes native to Korea were collected across the Southern, Western and Eastern seashore regions of the Korean peninsula, among which fifty-five accessions were later further propagated and evaluated genetically by using an AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) marker. Based on the AFLP analysis performed to uncover the genetic diversity of the collected ecotypes, enzymatic cleavage of the extracted DNA was implemented based on 12 EcoRI and MseI combinations. A total of 1,279 alleles (107 alleles per EcoRI and MseI enzyme combination) were successfully amplified, among which 62 alleles per enzyme combination were polymorphic (58%). The AFLP analysis indicated that the rate of genetic dissimilarity was 29% among the New Zealand spinach collections, which were clustered into the 7 genetic diversity group. This is the first report on the genetic variation in the genus Tetragonia, and the basic information can be applied to select parental lines for enhancing the segregation spectrum of the new halophytic vegetable plant grown in salt-affected areas.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.543-549
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• 2012

To gather the basic data for increasing the utilization of Isatis tinctoria, we examined the effects of both antioxidative enzyme activity and antimicrobial activity from the extract of Isatis tinctoria. Ascorbate Peroxidase activities reveal that there is an decrease in order; ethanol extract from its stem (1601.7 Unit/mg protein), methanol extract from its leaf (1133.7 Unit/mg protein) and distilled water extract from its leaf (524.3 Unit/mg protein). Catalase activities reveal that there is an decrease in order; ethanol extract from its flower petal (177.1 Unit/mg protein), methanol extract from its leaf (120.8 Unit/mg protein) and distilled water extract from its flower petal (55.4 Unit/mg protein). Peroxidase activities reveal that there is an decrease in order; ethanol extract from its flower petal (27.1 Unit/mg protein), methanol extract from its flower petal (14.6 Unit/mg protein) and distilled water extract from its stem (10.4 Unit/mg protein). Superoxide dismutase activities reveal that there is an increase in order; distilled water extract from its root (90.8%), methanol extract from its flower petal (80.1%) and ethanol extract from its root (75.5%). Its flower extract showed a antimicrobial activity only against Vibrio parahaemolyticus, its root extract had only against Staphylococcus aureus, and its stem extract had against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, regardless of solvents. Especially, distilled water extract from its leaf showed a high antimicrobial activity against both Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli and inhibition diameters against those were 30.0 and 24.0 mm, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.92-92
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• 2019

Excessive or chronic inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of many inflammatory diseases such as sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis. Hibiscus syriacus L. has been used as a medicinal plant in many Asian countries, even though its anti-inflammatory activity has been unclear. Therefore, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effect of anthocyanin fractions from the H. syriacus L. varieties Pulsae (PS) on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of proinflammatory mediators and cytokines in RAW264.7 macrophages. PS suppressed LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin $E_2$ ($PGE_2$) secretion concomitant with downregulation of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression. Furthermore, PS inhibited the production of proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha ($TNF-{\alpha}$), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-12 in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages. Further study showed that PS significantly decreased LPS-induced nuclear translocation of the nuclear $factor-{\kappa}B$ ($NF-{\kappa}B$) subunits, p65 and p50. Molecular docking data showed that many anthocyanins from PS fit into the hydrophobic pocket of MD2 and bound to Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), indicating that PS inhibits the TLR4-MD2-mediated inflammatory signaling pathway. Especially, apigenin-7-O-glucoside most powerfully bound to MD2 and TLR4 through LYS122, LYS122, and SER127 at a distance of $2.205{\AA}$, $3.098{\AA}$, and $2.844{\AA}$ and SER441 at a distance of $2.873{\AA}$ (docking score: -8.4) through hydrogen bonding, respectively. Additionally, PS inhibited LPS-induced TLR4 dimerization/expression on the cell surface, which consequently decreased MyD88 recruitment and IRAK4 phosphorylation. PS completely blocked LPS-mediated mortality in zebrafish larvae by diminishing the recruitment of neutrophil and macrophages accompanied by low levels of proinflammatory cytokines. Taken together, our results indicate that PS attenuates LPS-mediated inflammation in both in vitro and in vivo by blocking the TLR4/MD2-MyD88/IRAK4-$NF-{\kappa}B$ axis. Therefore, PS might be used as a novel modulatory candidate for effective treatment of LPS-mediated inflammatory diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.553-561
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• 2022

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a slowly progressing hematopoietic cell disorder. Sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) plays established roles in tumor initiation, progression, and chemotherapy resistance in a wide range of cancers, including leukemia. However, small-molecule inhibitors targeting SPHK1 in CML still need to be developed. This study revealed the role of SPHK1 in CML and investigated the potential anti-leukemic activity of hirsuteine (HST), an indole alkaloid obtained from the oriental plant Uncaria rhynchophylla, in CML cells. These results suggest that SPHK1 is highly expressed in CML cells and that overexpression of SPHK1 represents poor clinical outcomes in CML patients. HST exposure led to G2/M phase arrest, cellular apoptosis, and downregulation of Cyclin B1 and CDC2 and cleavage of Caspase 3 and PARP in CML cells. HST shifted sphingolipid rheostat from sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) towards the ceramide coupled with a marked inhibition of SPHK1. Mechanistically, HST significantly blocked SPHK1/S1P/S1PR1 and BCR-ABL/PI3K/Akt pathways. In addition, HST can be docked with residues of SPHK1 and shifts the SPHK1 melting curve, indicating the potential protein-ligand interactions between SPHK1 and HST in both CML cells. SPHK1 overexpression impaired apoptosis and proliferation of CML cells induced by HST alone. These results suggest that HST, which may serve as a novel and specific SPHK1 inhibitor, exerts anti-leukemic activity by inhibiting the SPHK1/S1P/S1PR1 and BCR-ABL/PI3K/Akt pathways in CML cells, thus conferring HST as a promising anti-leukemic drug for CML therapy in the future.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.561-571
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• 2023

Background: Escalating evidence shows that ginseng possesses an antiaging potential with cognitive enhancing activity. As mountain cultivated ginseng (MCG) is cultivated without agricultural chemicals, MCG has emerged as a popular herb medicine. However, little is known about the MCG-mediated pharmacological mechanism on brain aging. Methods: As we demonstrated that glutathione peroxidase (GPx) is important for enhancing memory function in the animal model of aging, we investigated the role of MCG as a GPx inducer using GPx-1 (a major type of GPx) knockout (KO) mice. We assessed whether MCG modulates redox and cholinergic parameters, and memory function in aged GPx-1 knockout KOmice. Results: Redox burden of aged GPx-1 KO mice was more evident than that of aged wild-type (WT) mice. Alteration of Nrf2 DNA binding activity appeared to be more evident than that of NFκB DNA binding activity in aged GPx-1 KO mice. Alteration in choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity was more evident than that in acetylcholine esterase activity. MCG significantly attenuated reductions in Nrf2 system and ChAT level. MCG significantly enhanced the co-localization of Nrf2-immunoreactivity and ChAT-immunoreactivity in the same cell population. Nrf2 inhibitor brusatol significantly counteracted MCG-mediated up-regulation in ChAT level and ChAT inhibition (by k252a) significantly reduced ERK phosphorylation by MCG, suggesting that MCG might require signal cascade of Nrf2/ChAT/ERK to enhance cognition. Conclusion: GPx-1 depletion might be a prerequisite for cognitive impairment in aged animals. MCG-mediated cognition enhancement might be associated with the activations of Nrf2, ChAT, and ERK signaling cascade.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.126-134
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• 2015

Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer is one of the most commonly used herbs. Recently, the stem and leave of the plant have been interested in physiological activities because the aerial parts have been thrown away. Finding out cultivation method of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer to improve chemical ingredients and biological activities has been tried these days. In this study, different wavelengths of light emitting diode (LED) were used for a cultivation of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer. Antioxidant activities and inhibitory effect on mutagenecity of samples were evaluated. The stem and leave cultivated under blue light (BL-0) showed the strongest antioxidant activities of $3.02{\pm}0.13{\mu}g/ml$ ($EC_{50}$) and $2.18{\pm}0.18{\mu}g/ml$ ($EC_{50}$) in DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging test, respectively. Total phenolic content of BL-0 was $2.93{\pm}0.11g/100g$, the highest value between cultivation conditions. However, antioxidant activities of the stem and leave cultivated under red light were the weakest between samples. All of the stem and leave used in this study showed inhibitory effect on mutagenecity of 1-nitropyrene. BL-0 showed stronger inhibitory effects on mutagenicity of Trp-P-1, Trp-P-2, and AFB1 than samples cultivated under other conditions. Only on mutagenecity of 2-aminoanthracene, the stem and leave cultivated at 1 m apart from red light (RL-1) showed the strongest inhibitory effect. These results indicate that blue LED might be the most effective condition for improvement of physiological activities for the aerial parts of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer in cultivation. The components were identified with GC/MS. Cytidine was detected only in RL-1 at 25 min of retention time and 2-bromotrimethylene glycol was detected only in BL-0 at 37 min.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.69-92
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• 2001

The purposes of this study were to offer foundation making more certain standards of musculoskeletal disorder diagnosis, We researched musculoskeletal symptoms degrees, frequencies, and cares and then examined relation between musculoskeletal symptoms and diagnosis of musculoskeletal conditions using moire topography among workers at an automobile manufacturing plant. Therefore we propose the possibility of moire topography as diagnosing utilities of musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: This study was to examine the general characteristics, complaints of musculoskeletal symptoms, and work-related musculoskeletal disorder rates of cervicobrachial and lumbar area by survey among 435 workers at an automobile manufacturing plant and then to show each frequency and percentage, In the diagnosis using moire topography, we studied pain control necessity of cervicobrachial and lumbar area, 435 subjects were classified by 5 levels: A(no symptoms), B(need management), C(need treatment) and then more divided by B1(light symptoms)/B2(heavy symptoms), C1(light symptoms)/C2(heavy symptoms), And musculoskeletal areas were divided by 2 parts, cervicobrachial area(neck, shoulder, arm&elbow, and wrist&hand) and lumbar area, Then, frequency and percentage of each musculoskeletal areas(cervicobrachial and lumbar area) were appeared. At last, Pearson's chi-square test analysis was utilized to observe the relation between diagnosis using moire topography and general characteristics and the relation between diagnosis using moire topography and work-related complaint of musculoskeletal symptoms of cervicobrachial and lumbar area, Results: The subjects employed for this research were categorized into; by gender, all of them were males(l00%): by age, under 35 years 12 %, 36-40 years 56.3%, 41-45 years 26.3 %, and above 46 years 5.3% with 36-40 years accounting for most of it. By living location, owned houses represented 69.7%, rented houses 23.4%, monthly-rented 1.6%, the others 5.3%; by education, middle school and lower represented 3.0%, high school 89.4%, and junior college and higher 7.6% with high school occupying most of the group. By marital status, married represented 95.2%, unmarried 4.1%, and the others 0.7% with most of them married; by alcohol, drinking represented 81.8% and non-drinking 18.2%; by smoking status, smoking represented 53.6%, non-smoking 46.4% with no big difference between them. By working time(hours/week), below 50 represented 26.9%, 50-60 67.6%, above 60 5.5%; by working time(hours/day), below 9 represented 21.6%, 10-12 73.1%, above 13 5.3%; by job tenure(years), below 10 represented 25.1%, 11-15 54.3%, 16-20 15.2%, above 21 5.5%. By personal income per year, below 30 million won represented 11.0%, 30-40 84.8%, above 40 4.1%; by sleeping hours, below 6 hours represented 26.7%, 7-8 hours 69.9%, above 9 hours 3.4%. Complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms and work-related musculoskeletal disorder rates were 63.9% and 54.9% with shoulder area occupying most of both them. By pain degree of musculoskeletal symptoms, shoulder area represented $2.73{\pm}0.84$, lumbar area $2.66{\pm}0.86$, wrist and hand area $2.59{\pm}0.86$, neck area $2.55{\pm}0.74$, and arm and elbow area $2.48{\pm}0.71$. By cares about musculoskeletal symptoms, taking medication or care represented 34.4%-46.7%, absence or leave 15.4%-28.7%, and job transfer 6.3%-11.5%. So experienced cases more than one thing among cares about musculoskeletal symptoms represented 39.6%-54%. In the diagnosis using moire topography, pain control necessity of cervicobrachial area was shown below; A(no symptoms) 20.7%, B1(need management/light symptoms) 64.6%, B2(need management/heavy symptoms) 11.5%, C1(need treatment/light symptoms) 3.0%, C2(need treatment/heavy symptoms) 0.2%. By lumbar area, A(no symptoms) 8.7%, B1(need management/light symptoms) 52.2%, B2(need management/heavy symptoms) 30.3%, C1(need treatment/light symptoms) 8.7%, C2(need treatment/heavy symptoms) was none. In the relation between pain control necessity and general characteristics, age(P=0.013), education(P=0.000), and job tenure(P=0.012) with pain control necessity showed differences with significance. The relation between pain control necessity and complaint of musculoskeletal symptoms of cervicobrachial and lumbar area showed no difference with significance; in cervicobrachial area represented P=0.708, lumbar area P=0.318 Conclusions: This study for musculoskeletal symptoms on workers at automobile manufacturing plant showed that complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms for cervicobrachial and lumbar area were so high, 63.9%. But Pearson's chi-square test analysis was utilized to study the relation between musculoskeletal symptoms and the diagnosis using moire topography, showed no differences with significance. They have no differences with significance, but the prevalence rates of diagnosis using moire topography for cervicobrachial and lumbar area were more higher than complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms; complaint rates of musculoskeletal symptoms were 52.4%, 34.5% and the diagnosis using moire topography were 79.3%, 91.3% for cervicobrachial and lumbar area. The results of this study indicate that the diagnosis using moire topography can find weak musculoskeletal disorders that an individual can not feel, not be judged work-related musculoskeletal disease. Therefore, this study has an important meaning that diagnosis using moire topography can predict and control own physical condition complete musculoskeletal disorders beforehand, since oriental medicine theory considers that prevention is important.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.37-40
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• 2015

Poria cocos is an edible and pharmaceutical mushroom with a long history of medicinal use in Korea. For the last 30 years, the domestic cultivated supply of Poria cocos has been unable to meet consumer demand, so Poria cocos is collected in mountainous areas and also imported from China. Thus, to increase the supply of Poria cocos, many artificial cultivation methods have been studied. In this study, Poria cocos is cultivated under different environmental conditions using plastic bags and the results compared. When cultivating Poria cocos at different temperatures (20, 25, 30 and $35^{\circ}C$) and using different numbers of plastic bag layers (1, 2), the most efficient cultivation conditions were a temperature of $25-30^{\circ}C$ and 2 plastic bag layers. The fastest growth was at $25-30^{\circ}C$, and the Poria cocos exhibited no weight change when cultivated using layers of plastic bags (1, 2).

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.37 no.4 s.147
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• pp.266-271
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• 2006

Sophorae Radix, the dried roots of Sophora flavescens Aiton (Leguminosae), has been used in oriental traditional medicine for treatment of skin and mucosal ulcers, sores, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, diarrhea, inflammation and arrhythmia. Present study was carried out for the gastroprotective effect of trifolirhizin from Sophora flavescens. This reports were evaluated antibacterial activity against Helicobacter pylori and HCl ethanol-induced gastric lesion in rats and showed the significant effectiveness. In pylorus ligated rats, the treatments of trifolirhizin showed decrease in the volume of gastric secretion and acid output. Also we evaluated the antibacterial activity against H. pylori treated with methanol extract and trifolirhizin from Sophora flavescens had a equivalent antibacterial activity with ampicillin against H. pylori at the dose of $100{\mu}g/mL$. It may be regarded that the antigastritic effects and antibacterial activity of trifolirhizin from Sophora flavescens are originated from reduction of total acid output identified by gastric secretion reduce, free radical scavenging effects and the antibacterial activity against H. pylori.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.9-13
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• 2006

Objectives : To determine the DNA sequence of the 18S rRNA gene of the Rehmannia glutinosa and analyze it phylogenetically Methods : Dried root of the Rehmannia glutinosa was ground with a mortar and pestle. Glass beads(0.5 mm in diameter), TE buffer and SDS solution were added to that. The mixture was vortexed vigorously and extracted with the mixture of phenol, chloroform and isoamyl alcohol and with the mixture of the chloroform and isoamyl alcohol. The nucleic acids were precipitated with ethanol and resuspended in TE buffer. Contaminating RNA was digested with RNAse A and the DNA was purified further with the Geneclean Turbo Kit. This DNA was used as a template for amplification of the 18S rRNA gene by PCR. The PCR product was cloned in the pBluescript SK II plasmid by blunt-end ligation and the DNA sequence of the insert was determined. This DNA sequence was analyzed phylogenetically by the BLAST program. Results and Conclusion : Vortexing the ground powder of the dried plant root with glass beads during cell lysis improved recovery of DNA. The DNA sequence of the Rehmannia glutinosa 18S rRNA gene was determined and deposited at the GenBank as the accession number DQ469606. Phylogenetic analysis of that sequence showed the relationship between the members of the family of Scrophulariaceae and also the close relationship of the Buddleja davidii to the members of the Scrophulariaceae family.