• ALGAE
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.163-175
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• 2008

Phenolic compounds play a major role in the interaction of plants with their environment. They are thought to have been a feature of higher plants since early colonization of the land. Phenolics are crucial for many important aspects of plant life. They can play structural roles in different supporting or protective tissues, for example in cell walls, they can be involved in defence strategies, and signalling properties particularly in the interactions between plants and their environment. In brown algae, phenolic compounds are contained within membrane bound vesicles known as physodes, and their roles in algae are thought to be similar to those of higher plant phenolics. They can be stained using various histochemical stains, however, none of these stains are phenolic specific so care must be taken during interpretation of such results. Many, but not all phenolics are also autofluorescent under UV or violet light. Physodes are involved in cell wall construction, both in primary and secondary walls in brown algae. They bind together with other wall components to make a tough wall. They have also been found to play a role at fertilization, in blocking polyspermy in some species. Sperm are very quickly rendered immobile after phenolic release from newly fertilized zygotes seconds after fertilization. Phenolic compounds are thought to be important herbivore deterrents in some species due to their astringent nature. Phenolic compounds also offer effective UV protection in the early life stages and also the adults of many algal species. In the future, this factor may also make them an important player in the pharmaceutical and skincare industries.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.14-14
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• 2020

In December 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic was discovered in Wuhan, China, and since has disseminated around the world impacting human health for millions. Herein, in-silico drug discovery approaches were utilized to identify potential candidates as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) main protease (M^pro) inhibitors. We investigated several databases including natural and natural-like products (>100,000 molecules), DrugBank database (10,036 drugs), major metabolites isolated from daily used spices (32 molecules), and current clinical drug candidates for the treatment of COVID-19 (18 drugs). All tested compounds were prepared and screened using molecular docking techniques. Based on the calculated docking scores, the top ones from each project under investigation were selected and subjected to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations followed by molecular mechanics-generalized Born surface area (MM-GBSA) binding energy calculations. Combined long MD simulations and MM-GBSA calculations revealed the potent compounds with prospective binding affinities against M^pro. Structural and energetic analyses over the simulated time demonstrated the high stabilities of the selected compounds. Our results showed that 4-bis([1,3]dioxolo)pyran-5-carboxamide derivatives (natural and natural-like products database), DB02388 and Cobicistat (DB09065) (DrugBank database), salvianolic acid A (spices secondary metabolites) and TMC-310911 (clinical-trial drugs database) exhibited high binding affinities with SARS-CoV-2 M^pro. In conclusion, these compounds are up-and-coming anti-COVID-19 drug candidates that warrant further detailed in vitro and in vivo experimental estimations.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.218-221
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• 2013

Korean cabbage, a member of the Brassicaceae family which also includes cauliflower, mustard, radish, and turnip plants, is a crucial leafy vegetable crop. Korean cabbage is harvested after completion of the leaf heading process and is often prepared for use in "baechu kimchi", a traditional Korean food. Many of the components in Korean cabbage are essential for proper human nutrition; these components can be divided into two groups: primary metabolites, which include carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, and organic acids, and secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, carotenoids, sterols, phenolic acids, alkaloids, and glucosinolates (GSLs). Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, this study examined the variety of volatile compounds (including isothiocyanates) contained in Korean cabbage and its seed, which resulted in the identification of 16 and 12 volatile compounds, respectively. The primary volatile compound found in the cabbage was ethyl linoleolate (~23%), while 4,5-epithiovaleronitrile (~46%) was the primary volatile component in the seed.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2017

Objectives: Medicinal plants are vital sources of bioactive compounds that are useful for the treatment of patients with snake bites or are indirectly applicable for boosting the effects of conventional serum therapy. These plants are being used traditionally by local healers and tribes for the treatment of patients with snake bites and therefore can be used as an alternative against snake envenomation. Scientifically, using the secondary metabolites of plants to neutralize venom enzymes has an extra benefit of being based on traditional knowledge; also, the use of such metabolites for the treatment of patients with snake bites is cheaper and the treatment can be started sooner. Methods: All the available information on various secondary metabolites exhibiting venom neutralizing ability were collected via electronic search (using Google books, Pubmed, SciFinder, Scirus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science) and articles of peer-reviewed journals. Results:Recent interest in different plant has focused on isolating and identifying of different phytoconstituents that exhibit Phospholipase A2 activity and other venom enzyme neutralizing ability. In this support convincing evidence in experimental animal models are available. Conclusion: Secondary metabolites are naturally present, have no side effect, are stable for a long time, can be easily stored, and can neutralize a wide range of snake enzymes, such as phospholipase A2, hyaluronidase, protease, L-amino acid oxidase, 5'nucleotidase, etc. The current review presents a compilation of important plant secondary metabolites that are effective against snake venom due to enzyme neutralization.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.143-154
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• 2022

Plant secondary metabolites play an important role in insect-plant interactions. Herbivorous insects have various strategies to cope with the plant defensive compounds. Polyphagous insects feed on a wide variety of plant species, and their detoxification mechanisms are more complex since they tend to respond to a large array of different plant-derived chemicals. Alternatively, oligophagous insects specialize on only a few related plant species and may be expected to have a more efficient form of adaptation. This adaptation could involve either the production of large quantities of enzymes to detoxify their defensive compounds or the sequestration of the compounds or their metabolites. The oriental tobacco budworm, Helicoverpa assulta, is a specialist herbivore, feeding on a few plants of Solanaceae, such as tobacco and hot pepper. Understanding its host-plant adaptation not provides an important insight on physiology, ecology and evolution of specialist herbivores, but also gives a clue to develop management strategies of the pest species such as H. assulta. This paper briefly reviews the specialist, H. assulta, focusing on its host range, larval associations with the host plants, and detoxification mechanisms to nicotine and capsaicin, two characteristic defensive compounds derived from its two major host plants, tobacco and hot pepper, respectively. It summarizes the relevant research over the last half century and provides a future perspective on this subject.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.692-702
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• 2018

Streptococcus mutans causes oral diseases, including tooth decay, by producing a biofilm called plaque. Therefore, inhibition of biofilm formation is essential for maintaining oral health. Plants produce a variety of secondary metabolites, which act as starting sources for the discovery of new bioactive chemicals that inhibit biofilm formation of S. mutans. Previous studies have reported on chemicals with antibiotic activity for the inhibition of biofilm formation by S. mutans. In this study, nine plant extracts from Melonis Pedicellus, Agastachis Herba, Mori Cortex Radicis, Diospyros kaki leaves, Agrimoniae Herba, Polygoni Multiflori Radix, Lycopi Herba, Elsholtziae Herba, and Schizonepetae Spica were screened for the inhibition of biofilm formation from a plant extract library. The water-soluble compounds of the extracts did not affect cell growth but selectively inhibited biofilm formation. These results suggest that the selected plant extracts constitute novel biofilm formation inhibitors, with a novel biological mechanism, for improving oral hygiene.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2004

Secondary phenolic metabolites play an important role in plant defense mechanisms, and increasing evidence indicates that many phenolic compounds are important in human health. To date, few studies have investigated the impact of various medicinal plants on levels of secondary plant metabolites. To address this issue, 82 species of Korean medicinal plants were screened to determine their resveratrol contents. Among 82 medicinal plants, 5 species such as Gardenia jasmonoides, Phlomis umbrosa, Rheum palmatum L., Polygala tenuifolia, Rubus chingii HU contained relatively high concentrations of resveratrol $(179.75{\sim}42.71\;{\mu}g/g)$. But, 40 species including Adenophora triphylla var. japonica HARA were only observed low concentrations or trace of resveratrol, and 20 species including Alpinia officinarum HANCE did not contain a resveratrol.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.04a
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• pp.66-66
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• 2018

Light fermentation has been conducted under different light conditions such as normal dark light, white light, and light emitting diodes (LEDs) various color (blue, green, red, white on blueberry powder with fermenting bacteria Bacillus subtilis (B2). The bacteria B2 was isolated and identified by 16S rRNA sequencing method. RYRP biologically converted to secondary metabolites through light fermentation in the presence of Bacillus subtilis, the bacteria actively involved in bioconversion process. LEDs fermentation to enhance the production of phenolic content while comparing to normal dark and white light. Among the different color LEDs, blue LEDs mediated fermentation showed higher amount of total phenolic and flavonoid content. Then blue LEDs mediated fermented compound were characterized by FTIR and GC-MS, subsequently the compound was analyzed antioxidant activity tests and the antioxidant activity exhibited higher. This is the first study to demonstrate that B. subtilis-LEDs mediated fermentation is useful for facilitating phenolic compound production and enhancing antioxidant activity, which may have greater application fermentation fields.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.225-231
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• 2005

This study was initiated to investigate the impacts of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) on adventitious root growth of Panax ginseng, the production of secondary metabolites, such as ginsenosides and phenolic compounds, and antioxidative activity. Among various concentrations of MeJA, $100\;{\mu}M$ MeJA increased the ginsenosides accumulation to 26.6 mg/g dry wt, about 8 times higher than the control in ginseng adventitious roots (GAR). In addition, $50\;{\mu}M$ MeJA increased the accumulation of phenolic compounds to 0.38 mg/g dry wt, about 3 times higher than control in GAR. This MeJA treatment was more effective in conditioned medium (CM) which obtained in bioreactor after 40 days of culture than in fresh medium (FM). Treatment of $100\;{\mu}M$ MeJA in CM increased the accumulation of ginsenosides (1.7 times) and phenolic compounds (1.2 times) more than in FM, respectively. Consequently, these high accumulation of ginsenosides and phenolic compounds by MeJA led to increase the antioxidative activities expressed to the DPPH scavenging activity (over $78.3\%$). The DPPH scavenging activity in control was $45.5\%$.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.515-535
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• 2020

Essential oils (EOs) have gained a renewed interest in many disciplines such as plant disease control and medicine. This review discusses the components of ginger EOs, their mode of action, and their potential nanotechnology applications in controlling tropical plant diseases. Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), high-performance liquid chromatography, and headspace procedures are commonly used to detect and profile their chemical compositions EOs in ginger. The ginger EOs are composed of monoterpenes (transcaryophyllene, camphene, geranial, eucalyptol, and neral) and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (α-zingiberene, ar-curcumene, β-bisabolene, and β-sesquiphellandrene). GC-MS analysis of the EOs revealed many compounds but few compounds were revealed using the headspace approach. The EOs have a wide range of activities against many phytopathogens. EOs mode of action affects both the pathogen cell's external envelope and internal structures. The problems associated with solubility and stability of EOs had prompted the use nanotechnology such as nanoemulsions. The use of nanoemulsion to increase efficiency and supply of EOs to control plant diseases control was discussed in this present paper. The findings of this review paper may accelerate the effective use of ginger EOs in controlling tropical plant diseases.