• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.214-221
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• 2016

Background: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of germanium treatment on the growth and organic germanium production in the roots of Oplopanax elatus plantlets. Methods and Results: O. elatus plantlets were cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with different concentrations of germanium dioxide ($GeO_2$) to analyze optimum growth conditions. Exogenous treatment of $10mg/{\ell}\;GeO_2$ promoted growth and an increase in the contents of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoid in O. elatus. The germanium accumulation and production in roots of O. elatus plantlets treated with organic germanium reached the highest levels. The growth of the aerial and underground portion of O. elatus with organic germanium was greater than that of the control. The accumulation and production of organic germanium reached the highest level ($40.89{\mu}g/plantlet$) with the treatment of $50mg/{\ell}\;GeO_2$. Antioxidant activity measured by DPPH and ABTS assays also increased with the germanium treatment and improved the DPPH and ABTS radical activity by 200% compared with that in the control. In addition, the total phenol and flavonoid contents of the plantlets with a treatment of $50mg/{\ell}\;GeO_2$ were higher than in the control. Conclusions: Taken together, the growth of O. elatus was increased with the treatment of $50mg/{\ell}\;GeO_2$ germanium and the biological references improved, with increased antioxidant activity and organic germanium production.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.226-232
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• 2011

In this study, for development of functional sprouts, we have investigated the change of antioxidant activity and quantity of vitamin C, germanium and selenium according to the addition of vitamin C, germanium oxide and selenium oxide on the during cultivation of various sprouts. We were cultivated the sprouts using water solution added vitamin C, germanium oxide and selenium oxide on the system of cultivation instrument. Analysis of quantity of vitamin C on control group and treatment group were conducted by HPLC. Quantity of germanium and selenium were analyzed by ICP-MS(Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer), and antioxidant activities were checked by DPPH method. As a result, quantity of vitamin C, germanium and selenium on the treatment groups have increased tendency compared to the control group. And antioxidant activity of treatment groups showed increasing tendency compared to the control group.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2011

The characteristics of absorption and accumulation of inorganic germanium in Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer were examined. In 4-year-old P. ginseng, the germanium content of the field soil increased with increased amounts and frequencies of inorganic germanium application, while chemical components of the soil, such as available phosphate and exchangeable calcium, potassium, and magnesium, decreased with the increased inorganic germanium application. In the 4-year-old P. ginseng, the germanium content was highest in the rhizome and increased in the order of stem, leaf, lateral root, and main root, suggesting that inorganic germanium was absorbed from the root and translocated to the stem and leaf via the rhizome. As for changes in ginsenosides in 4-year-old P. ginseng rhizomes, the contents of ginsenosides $Rb_1$, $Rb_2$, Re, and Rf decreased as the germanium content in soil increased. Ginsenosides $Rb_1$, $Rb_2$, Rc, Re, and Rf in the main root also decreased with increasing germanium content in the main root. The results suggest that inorganic germanium treatment may increase organic germanium in harvested P. ginseng, thus enhancing the medicinal effi cacy of ginseng products.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.39-43
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• 1996

In order to cultivate the soybean sprout fortified with organogermanium, we observed growth characteristics and germanium content of soybean sprout watered with the aqueous organogermanium, Ge-132[bis(2-Carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide)]. Soybean sprout did not show difference in growth when treated with different times and frequencies of organogermanium or different types of germanium. Growth of Orialtae soybean sprout was smaller in diameter of hypocotyledonary axis and longer in total length than that of Danyeob soybean sprout. Three hour's soaking was better in growth than half an boar's treatment. Germanium absorbed by soybean sprout was greater in content in Danyeob soybean sprout than in Orialtae soybean sprout and highest at 20 ppm in water. Prolonged period and increased frequency in treatments with organic germanium resulted in increase of germanium uptake. Germanium content in soybean sprout was greater with treatment of organic germanium than with inorganic germanium.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.200-208
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• 2003

This study was carried out to investigate the influence of dietary germanium supplementation on the meat quality of duck. Ducks raised for 42 days were slaughtered and the ground meats were stored at 3$^{\circ}C$ for 12 days under 1200 lux. Experimental treatments were divided into 3 kinds of meat from ducks fed germanium as follows; 1) Control(natural water + commercial feed), 2) T1(1～10 days: natural water + commercial feed, 11-42 days: natural water + commercial feed supplemented with 1 % germanium), 3) T2(1～10 days: germanium submersion water + commercial feed, 11～42 days: natural water + commercial feed supplemented with 1 % germanium). The pH of duck meat was not different among the treatments(p>0.05). The germanium treatments exhibited significantly higher crude fat content in both breast and thigh meat(p<0.05). In the fatty acid composition, T2 contained more unsaturated fatty acid than control or Tl. TPA(textural profile analysis) value such as hardness, gumminess, chewiness and adhesiveness decreased in meat from duck fed supplemental germanium. Cholesterol contents of duck meat decreased in dietary supplemental germanium treatment compared to control, but were not significantly different among them(p>0.05). Dietary germanium supplementation affected on lipid oxidation of meat during storage. TBARS of meat from duck fed germanium was lower than that of control(po.05). The CIE L*, b* and h$\^$0/ values of germanium treatments were significantly(p.o5) higher than those of control. Also a* value showed more stable in germanium diet treatment during storage. Therefore, dietary supplemental germanium to duck resulted in light brownish color formation, improvement tenderness and retardation of lipid oxidation of meat during refrigerated storage.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.701-707
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• 2009

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Ge(germanium) treatment on rice quality. Rice samples were divided into the following treatment groups: control(CON: cultivated without Ge), Ge-1(cultivated with 200 kg of rough stone powder containing 1.6 mg/kg germanium per 10 ha), and Ge-2(cultivated with 500 kg of rough stone powder containing 1.6 mg/kg germanium per 10 ha). The mean total Ge level in the Ge-2 sample was 20.47 ppb. The levels of Ca and Na in the Ge-2 rice increased by 65.12 and 110.28%, respectively, when compared to the control, whereas the Zn, Mn, Fe, Mg and K content decreased by 11.44~30.50%. No significant difference in the percentage weight of C and O was observed among samples. The order of the percentage weight of P, S, and Cl was Ge-2>Ge-1>CON. The free amino acids were higher in samples from the Ge-1 and Ge-2 groups than in samples from the control. The GABA($\gamma$-aminobutyric acid) amount in the Ge-2 products was significantly high compared to other groups. The micro structure of Ge-2 showed a firmer network than the control and had a macroporous structure. Conversely, the Ge-2 products had higher scores for stickiness, hardness and overall taste when compared to the other groups. These results suggest that rice treated with rough stone powder containing germanium can be used in the production of commercially-desired functional rice.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.84-90
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• 2005

Neutrophils that influx into the alveolar spaces from circulatory bloods play a important role in pathogenesis of acute lung injury. During the acute inflammatory phase, in order to investigate the acceleration of macrophage phagocytosis to the neutrophils is able to reduce the neutrophil-derived acute lung injury, endotoxemia was induced by insufflation of lipopolysaccharide intratracheally and organic germanium was injected intraperitoneally after endotoxin treatment. At 5 h after endotoxin treatment, lung weight and BAL protein concentration are significantly increased (p<0.001) compared to sham, and that was remarkedly decreased (p<0.001, p<0.01) by injection of germanium. In addition germanium treatment resulted to decreased the number of alveolar PMNs and to increase the percentage of engulfed neutrophils by alveolar macrophages. These observations indicate that organic germanium may have a role of reduction to neutrophil-derived acute lung injury in endotoxemia.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2007

Since germanium has been shown to be beneficial for the treatment of diseases such as cancer and rheumatic arthritis, we developed an adapted process of bio-germanium preparation using inorganic germanium. In the present study we determined the optimal conditions for culturing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (KCTC-1199), and the best concentrations of inorganic germanium for the adaptation process. The resulting method was successful at producing high quantities of germanium yeasts. The following are the culture conditions that obtained the highest level of productivity: an inorganic germanium concentration of 3,000-5,000 ppm, a pH of 6.5, a temperature of $35^{\circ}C$, and 20 hr of incubation time. In addition to this high-yield quantity study, we observed the acute oral toxicity of mice treated with Geranti Bio-Ge $Yeast^{(R)}$. We found no changes in body weight, or in the mortality between the control groups and the bio-germanium yeast group. There were also no digestive problems such as diarrhea that occurred in either group.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.185-190
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• 2008

In order to obtain the basic information for agricultural utilization of Germanium(Ge), the growth characteristics and the germanium uptake by water celery were investigated at different concentration of germanium in soil. This experiment was carried out in the Wagner pot(1 $5,000^{-1}a$). Germanium concentrations in soil for water celery cultivation were maintained at 0.26, 25.0, 62.5, and 125.0 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively. The treatment of over Ge 25.0 mg $kg^{-1}$ in the soil led to germanium phytotoxicity such as reduction of plant height and fresh weight. The contents of germanium in water celery were increased with the increase of germanium concentration in the soil. When water celery was cultivated from soil maintained with Ge 25.0 and 62.5 mg $kg^{-1}$, its germanium contents in plant were 89.9 and 371.6 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively. Then, the efficiency of germanium uptake of water celery in Ge 25.0 and 62.5 mg $kg^{-1}$ maintained plots was 1.7 and 2.4%, respectively. When water celery was cultivated from soil maintained with Ge 25.0, 62.5 and 125.0 mg $kg^{-1}$, its content of amino acid was found to be 89.8, 198.4, and 318.2 mg $g^{-1}$, respectively. To investigate the effect of N fertilizer application in uptake of germanium by water celery, these were treated with nontreatment, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 times of N application based on soil testing for cultivation of water celery. However, the amount of the N fertilizer application did not affect the contents of germanium in the water celery. When water celery was cultivated from soil maintained with two kinds of inorganic and organic germanium 50 mg $kg^{-1}$, respectively, the content of germanium were 24.2 mg $kg^{-1}$ in the Ge-132 treatment and 11.8 mg $kg^{-1}$ in the $GeO_2$ treatment.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.55-59
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• 2006

This study was designed to investigate the optimum manufacturing condition of germanium-fortified yeast, and the binding properties of germanium (Ge) in germanium-fortified yeast. The nutritional optimum conditions were glucose 3.0 (w/v) %, yeast extracts 0.3 (w/v) % and peptone 0.5 (w/v) %, and the amounts of yeast cells were 67.4 mg/ml. And, the standard germanium-fortified yeast was produced under the condition at the ratio of yeast cell and germanium solution was 1 : 0.5 (50%), pH 6.5 and $35-40^{\circ}C$ during fermentation. In results of the identification, binding of germanium-protein showed structural difference between the inorganic Ge $(GeO_2)$ added during fermentation process and germanium-fortified yeast. Therefore, germanium-fortified yeast made by biosynthetic technology formed structurally safe organic germanium during fermentation process. Germanium-fortified yeast can be applied as a new functional material far the improvement of health, the prevention and treatment of chronic degenerative disease like cancer, and the enforcement of immune system.