• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.603-608
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• 2005

We recently isolated a novel probiotic strain, Lactobacillus fermentum PL9005 (KCCM-10250), from infant feces and showed that it had a potential immunoenhancing effect. In the present study, a safety assessment of the bacteria was performed using a BALB/c mouse model. Mice were administered with L. fermentum PL9005 daily for 28 days. There were no detectable changes in body weight, feed intake, or clinical signs, and no significant difference in hematological parameters or blood biochemistry between the L. fermentum PL9005-fed and control groups. Bacterial translocation was detected in the mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, and spleen of some mice with and without L. fermentum PL9005 feeding, however, the organisms were not related to ingestion of L. fermentum PL9005; this was confirmed by PCR using a species-specific primer. No gross lesions were detected in the liver, spleen, or intestine of L. fermentum PL9005-fed or control mice. Mucosal thickness in the ileum, cecum, and colon of L. fermentum PL9005-fed mice was not significantly different from that of corresponding organs in control mice. No inflammation or epithelial cell degeneration in the intestines was observed in any mice. These results indicate that ingestion of L. fermentum PL9005 is safe in mice and can be applied in the functional food market.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1073-1077
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• 2018

Nitrite plays a major role in inhibiting the growth of foodborne pathogens, including Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) that causes botulism, a life-threatening disease. Nitrite serves as a color-fixing agent in processed meat products. However, N-nitroso compounds can be produced from nitrite, which are considered as carcinogens. Thus, consumers desire processed meat products that contain lower concentrations (below conventional concentrations of products) of nitrite or no nitrite at all, although the portion of nitrite intake by processed meat consumption in total nitrite intake is very low. However, lower nitrite levels might expose consumers to risk of botulism poisoning due to C. botulinum or illness caused by other foodborne pathogens. Hence, lower nitrite concentrations in combination with other factors such as low pH, high sodium chloride level, and others have been recommended to decrease the risk of food poisoning. In addition, natural compounds that can inhibit bacterial growth and function as color-fixing agents have been developed to replace nitrite in processed meat products. However, their antibotulinal effects have not been fully clarified. Therefore, to have processed meat products with lower nitrite concentrations, low pH, high sodium chloride concentration, and others should also be applied together. Before using natural compounds as replacement of nitrite, their antibotulinal activities should be examined.

• Journal of Species Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.223-234
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• 2016

As a subset work for the collection of indigenous prokaryotic species in Korea, 38 actinobacterial strains were isolated from various environmental samples obtained from plant root, ginseng cultivating soil, mud flat, freshwater and seawater. Each strain showed higher 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (>99.1%) and formed a robust phylogenetic clade with closest actinobacterial species which were defined and validated with nomenclature, already. There is no official description on these 38 actinobacterial species in Korea. Consequently, unrecorded 37 species of 24 genera in the 12 families belonging to the order Actinomycetales of the phylum Actinobacteria were found in Korea. Morphological properties, basic biochemical characteristics, isolation source and strain IDs are described in the species descriptions.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.303-313
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• 2009

Traditionally, Cham dang-gui (Angelica gigas Nakai) is one of the most popular herbal medicines in Asian countries including Korea. A. gigas has been used as a functional food product for treatment anemia, women's health care, a sedative, an anodyne or a tonic agent. Decursin and decursinol angelate isolated from the roots of A. gigas are pyranocoumarin compounds. Recently, as the global herbal medication market is increasing, investigations about pharmacological effects of decursin and decursinol angelate are rapidly increasing. We summarized previous studies about pharmacological effects of decursin and decursinol angelate, and reviewed relation with pharmacological effects of decursin and decursinol angelate on human disorder, focused on the approach for new drug development. Pharmacological effects of decursin and decursinol angelate were classified as anti-tumor activity, anti-bacterial activity, improvements of the circulating system, inhibition of cytochrome P-450 activity, anti-inflammation activity, anti-oxidant activity and cognitive-enhancing activites. The activity of A. gigas with improvement of the circulating system may have wide therapeutic potential for circulatory diseases, including diabetes, hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. Also, anti-inflammation activity A. gigas may be beneficial for the treatment and prevention of asthma, atopic dermatitis and rheumatism arthritis. This relation could potentially lead to the development of herbal new drugs. In order to development a new drug containing decursin and decursinol angelate, it is also necessary to consider the safety profile, and the information in this review would contribute to development a new drug from herbal medicine.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.7 s.87
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• pp.915-922
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• 2007

In order to discover physiologically active substance, we investigated a powder obtained by processing of Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten Makino trunk. The powder was treated by sulfuric acid and then extracted by several solvents such as methanol, methylene chloride, ethanol etc. Among them, the best antimicrobial activity was showed by methylene chloride extract. To identify materials exhibiting physiological activation, the acid hydrolyzed extract was separated by 7 fractions through preparative silica gel TLC. The effective fraction exhibiting the best broad antimicrobial activity was identified, named as MBT-01108. From structural analysis of the products extracted to acid hydrolysis, a compound exhibiting the antimicrobial activities is identified to levulinic acid. Levulinic acid isolated from Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten Makino may be applicable as a natural preservative of food or cosmetic and for prevention of bacterial diseases, an ingredient of acne, ageing and whitening cosmetics and an antimicrobial agent.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.429-438
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• 2010

The use of cellulolytic lactic acid bacteria in new method to prepare high nutrition complementary foods was investigated. For the screening of cellulolytic lactic acid bacteria, more than 1,150 bacterial colony were isolated from diluted infant feces samples. A typical strain which appeared the most excellent cellulolytic activities was identified novel acidophilic Enterococcus sp. TO-94 through the results of morphological, biochemical and chemotaxonomic characteristics and 16S rDNA sequencing. The optimal lactic acid fermentation conditions of Omija(Schizandra chinensis Baillon) by Enterococcus sp. TO-94 were as follows: pH and temperature were 3.0 and $37^{\circ}C$, respectively, and fermentation time was 20hrs. The fructose and glucose were major free sugar and the contents were 5.83 and 4.30 mg/g after fermentation, respectively. The contents of lactic acid and acetic acid were 9.84 mg/g and 2.08 mg/g after fermentation, respectively. The vitamin $B_1$, $B_2$, niacin, folic acid and C were major vitamin in the fermented broth, the contents were 1.5~3 times higher than those of initial fermentation time. Also, the contents of polyphenol and anthocyanine were 3.8 and 1.2 times higher than those of initial fermentation time.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.345-349
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• 2016

This study was performed to evaluate the quality characteristics of curd yogurt with different contents [0.5~2.0% (w/w)] of Korean rice wine lees powder (KRWLP). Yogurt was fermented with commercially available mixed lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum, Streptococcus thermophiles) at $40^{\circ}C$ for 15 h. Acid production (pH and titratable acidity) of yogurts increased with increasing KRWLP content. After 12 hours fermentation, titratable acidity of KRWLP yogurt was 1.19~1.29 % and was higher than that (1.07 %) of yogurt made without KRWLP. And also, the number of viable lactic acid bacterial cell increased and the culture time to obtain maximum number of lactic acid bacteria cell decreased with the addition of KRWLP. The curd stability in yogurt was significantly enhanced by repression of whey separation in KRWLP yogurt. In sensory evaluation, there was a similar preference for KRWLP yogurts and the control. These results suggest that KRWLP can be used as foodstuff to improve the quality characteristics of yogurt.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1848-1852
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• 2008

Salmonella remains a primary cause of food poisoning worldwide, and massive outbreaks have been witnessed in recent years. Therefore, this study investigated the antimicrobial activity of methyl gallate (MG), which exhibited good antibacterial activity ($MIC=3.9-125{\mu}g/ml$) against all the bacterial strains tested. In a checkerboard dilution test, MG markedly lowered the MICs of ciprofloxacin (CPFX) against Salmonella. The combined activity of CPFX and MG against Salmonella resulted in fractional inhibitory concentrations (FICs) ranging from 0.0037 to 0.015 and from 0.24 to $7.8{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. Meanwhile, the FIC index ranged from 0.31-0.37, indicating a marked synergistic relationship between CPFX and MG against Salmonella. Time-kill assays also showed a decrease in the CFU/ml between the combination and the more active compound. Therefore, this study demonstrated that MG and CPFX can act synergistically in inhibiting Salmonella in vitro.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.252-258
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• 2011

A bacterial strain capable of hydrolyzing xylan and locust bean gum (LBG) was isolated from farm soil by enrichment culture using mixture of palm kernel meal (PKM) and wheat bran as carbon source. Nucleotide sequence of 16S rDNA amplified from the isolate YB-1107 showed high similarity with those of genus Cellulosimicrobium strains. Xylanase productivity was increased when the Cellulosimicrobium sp. YB-1107 was grown in the presence of wheat bran or oat spelt xylan, while mannanase productivity was increased drastically when grown in the presence of PKM or LBG. Particularly, maximum mannanase and xylanase activities were obtained in the culture filtrate of media containing 0.7% PKM or 1% wheat bran, respectively. Both enzyme activities were produced at stationary growth phase. Mannanase from the culture filtrate showed the highest activity at $55^{\circ}C$ and pH 6.5. Xylanase activity was optimal at $65^{\circ}C$ and pH 5.5. The predominant products resulting from the mannanase or xylanase hydrolysis were oligosaccharides for LBG or xylan, respectively. In addition, the enzymes could hydrolyze wheat bran and rice bran into oligosaccharides.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1764-1768
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• 2010

In this study, the prevalence of antibiotic resistance was examined among 74 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius strains recently isolated from clinical cases of canine pyoderma and otitis externa at the veterinary teaching hospital at Konkuk University, Korea. Bacterial resistance to the nine commonly used antibiotics was evaluated by a standard disk diffusion technique based on the guidelines of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. The results demonstrated that most S. pseudintermedius isolates were resistant to penicillin (95.9%) or tetracycline (91.9%), but highly susceptible to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (90.5%). Among the 74 isolates, 13 mecA-positive and methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius (MRSP) strains were identified, displaying a high level of resistance (84.6-100%) to each of the individual antibiotics evaluated, with the exception of amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (46.2% resistance). Notably, all of the MRSP isolates exhibited simultaneous resistance to four or more different antibiotics, indicating that they are multiple drug resistant (MDR) strains. Taken together, these results imply that more careful selection or prescription of antibiotics for canine pyoderma and otitis externa should be required for reducing the emergence and/or spread of MDR strains, especially MDR-MRSP isolates, in veterinary pet clinics in Korea.