• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to investigate the antioxidant and antiobesity activities of various color resources extracted from natural plants such as, clove, persimmon, gall nut, amur cork, gardenia, safflower, and annatto. Total phenolic content was the highest in gall nut extract (2,441.45 mg/kg) followed by clove extract (1,346.48 mg/kg). DPPH, and ABTS radical scavenging activities and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were also higher in gall nut extract. ${\alpha}$-Glucosidase inhibitory activity ($IC_{50}$) was highest in persimmon extract ($22.83{\mu}g/mL$) followed by gall nut extract. ${\alpha}$-Amylase and lipase inhibitory activities were also higher in persimmon extract (49.45% and 61.01%, respectively). Lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells was lower in persimmon, clove, and annatto extracts (81.54%, 83.36%, and 85.70% at $20{\mu}g/mL$, respectively). Triglyceride content in 3T3-L1 cells was lowest in clove extract (66.11%) followed by persimmon extract (88.88%). The results of this study suggest that gall nut extract has the highest antioxidant activity, whereas persimmon and clove extract show the antiobesity activities by inhibition of digestive enzymes and fat accumulation in 3T3-L1 cells. These extracts are useful materials for the development of antioxidant and antiobesity functional foods.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.90-97
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• 2012

Environmental characteristics and vegetation of the natural habitats of Eranthis byunsanensis B.Y. Sun were investigated in order to provide the basic data for conservation, restoration, and utilization of this Korean endemic plant. This study was conducted in Anyang, Byeonsan, Geoje, Gyeongju, Jeju, Ulsan and Yeosu. E. byunsanensis was distributed around the altitudes of 84~585 m with a slope degree of $10{\sim}20^{\circ}$, and mostly formed discontinuous populations in north-east part of valleys. Soil analysis showed the mean organic matter of 9.6% and a slightly acidic pH (mean pH of 4.9). The mean gravimetric water content was 16.5%. Correlation coefficients between environmental factors and community characteristics suggested that there was a positive correlation between slope degree and soil water content, between slope degree and soil pH, between soil organic matter and importance value, and between species richness or evenness and species diversity. The vascular plants from 59 quadrats of 7 habitats were identified into 144 taxa. A few species were dominants and similarly distributed in Byeonsan, Jeju, Ulsan and Yeosu. The highest species diversity was found in Geoje (1.43), while Anyang showed the lowest (0.87). Species evenness of Gyeongju and Jeju was bigger than 0.8, but that of Geoje was the lowest (0.59). Dominant species of woody plants in and around the 59 plots were represented by high frequency of Acer pictum subsp. mono, Carpinus cordata, Lindera obtusiloba, and Carpinus laxiflora. The results of this study can provide useful data for conservation and restoration of natural habitats of Korean endemic Eranthis byunsanensis and for the development and growth of this species for ornamental purposes.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.705-714
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• 2014

This text was analyzed and investigated the aerial part plants and buried seed plants at coniferous forest and broadleaved forest in Yesan-gun, in order to offer the basic data of potential natural vegetation change on secondary forest. Plants of buried seed germination were consisted of 29 taxa in coniferous forest (28 species, 1 varieties, of 27 genus, 20 families) and 36 taxa in broadleaved forest (34 species, 2 varieties, of 32 genus, 18 families). Family classification of buried seed plant was the most in Compositae, and emergent plot frequency was the highest of Cyperus amuricus in coniferous forest and Crepidiastrum sonchifolium in broadleaved forest. The soil depth of the most plants appearance was 0~10 cm in coniferous forest and 0~5 cm in broadleaved forest, and the soil depth of the most population appearance was 0~2 cm in coniferous forest and broadleaved forest. Population of buried seed germination was decreased according as soil is deep. Crepidiastrum sonchifolium was a plant that population of buried seed germination is the most. Similarity index of the aerial part plants and buried seed plants was low as 0.22, and coniferous forest and broadleaved forest was 0.40.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.107-123
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• 1996

The position effects on the abortion of flowers, fruits, and ovules were examined in relation to the resource limitation hypothesis using a temperate legume species, Vicia cracca. Fifty plants were randomly sampled from a natural population located at the Belmont Conservation Site in Belmont, MA, USA. Due to indeterminant growth and acropetal flowering of this species, the position of flower or fruit on the plant was able to be coded by the combination of architectural levels such as plant half (lower and upper half) and inflorescence half (lower and upper half) within each plant half. Overall, only 17.3% of the flowers on an inflorescence began to develop into fruits, while overall 36.0% of the fruits initiated failed to mature. Consequently, 11.5% of the flowers successfully matured into fruits. The mean flower number per inflorescence differed significantly among plants as well as between plant halves. Although the probability of fruit initiation was higher in the lower halves of both plant and inflorescence than in the upper halves of the latter, fruit abortion rate differed significantly only between plant halves. The overall mean seed set was 33.6%, implying that about two out of six ovules in a fruit matured into seeds. The seed set was independent of both plant identity and architectural level unlike other reproductive characters examined. When the ovule developmental stage was examined on data pooled over all fruits, the proportion of ovules in varying developmental stages decreased in order of early abortion, seed maturation, late abortion, and seed predation (48.4, 34.9, 12.2, and 4.5%, respectively). A within-fruit ovule position was also used as a class variable for the analysis of position effects on ovule development. All architectural levels considered exerted singificant influence over the ovule development. In particular, ovule development was strongly affected by the within-fruit ovule position. Ovules in both extreme ends within a fruit tended to abort early, while those in the middle position were more likely to mature into seeds. The strong position effects detected from the flowering to seed maturation stage were interpreted as an indication of competitive interaction among reproductive characters which are largely constrained by plant architecture.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.576-587
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to classify various plants written in the Korean Buddhist scriptures and assign scientific name to them in accordance with the Hangul Tripitaca as standard scriptures, thereby establishing the foundation of the plants in Buddhist scriptures. As a natural resource, we also assessed the value of the plants written in the Buddhist scriptures that distributed from other countries. To this end, we inferred the route of introduction to Korea of the plants and investigated their function and usage. Taxonomic classification of the plants written in Buddhist scriptures identified a total of 331 taxa belonging to 107 families, 244 genera, 313 species, 1 subspecies, 16 varieties, 1 forms. Species composition of the 331 taxa of plants consisted of two taxa of pteridophyte, 15 taxa of gymnosperm, 261 taxa of dicotyledon, and 53 taxa of monocotyledon. Among them, 183 and 148 were woody and herbaceous plants, respectively. Analysis of the distribution of 331 kinds of plants that India's portion of origin of place is 8.9% which holds a low rank compared with those of Korea (10.5%), China (10.9%), and Japan (10.0%). This explains why many taxa of plants distributed from the three countries appeared in the Hangul Tripitaca. Accordingly, we hypothesized that the majority of the plants were added and replaced at some point in past while Buddhist scriptures were propagated from India to China and from China to Korea. Our analysis indicated that 119 out of the 331 taxa (36 %) were distributed from Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.463-469
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• 1994

For better understanding of population dynamics of Symplocarpus renifolius, some aspects of seed production were studied in natural populations for 3 years. The rate of reproducing plants (RP) was 8.06% among the whole studied. The RPs were 0.0% in leaf size class under 500cm2 per individual, and 3.6% in 500~1,000cm2, and 44.3% in over 3,000cm2. The resource allocated to sexual organ was 11.6% of total biomass at the end of growing season, and that to belowground was about 80% regradless of presence or absence of sexual organ. In the previous and the next years of seed production, the energy allocated to sexual organ didn't affect the changes of leaf size, year by year. After flowing season. Especially, a large number of sex organ were degraded in April, a period of pollination and fertilization. The number of seeds per individual was degraded in April, a period of pollination and fertilization. The number of seeds per individual was 13~22 and didn't relate to leaf size. But the weight per seed increased along leaf size per individual. Therefore, in S.renifolius population, large individual produced large seeds rather than many seeds.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.281-285
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• 2013

This study was designed to investigate the nervous sedative effects of green tea. The sedative effect was evaluated by examination of Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) inhibitory activity in vitro in the brain and liver of rat fed on green tea cultivated and harvested from the different regions and periods. It showed that methanol extracts of green tea inhibited significantly the brain MAO-A activity. Especially late harvested green tea extracts showed potential inhibitory activity. The liver MAO-B activity was also inhibited by all of the green tea extracts with strong intensity. This study confirmed that major compounds of green tea such as catechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and L-theanine, which were well known for the main bioactive components in the tea plants, were not associated with the MAO inhibitory activities of green tea. These results suggested that a MAO inhibition activity comes from other minor tea components we have to search in the future.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.61-65
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• 2013

Water is an integral part of energy production because it is used directly in many power generation systems such as hydroelectric power plants and thermoelectric power plants. Water is also used extensively in energy-resource extraction, oil, natural gas, and alternative fuels refining and processing. Recently, osmotic power systems using seawater and freshwater has been also investigated to produce electricity in a sustainable way. This study focused on the use of RO and PRO for the mutual conversion of water and energy. This system allows the production of water from seawater if there is not enough water. It can also generate electricity from salinity gradient of brine water and fresh water if there is not enough energy. To demonstrate the feasibility of this technology, a set of laboratory-scale experiments were carried out using a specially-designed RO/PRO system. The efficiency of energy conversion was theoretically estimated based on the results from the experiments. The results indicated that water and energy could be easily converted using a single device. Nevertheless, a lack of optimum membrane for this purpose was identified as a major barrier for practical application.

• Korean Journal of Weed Science
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

It was a method of weed removing, called as whagyeongsoonoobeob. Namely, the Hwanoobeob was the weeding method came from "Jeminyosool" in old China, and had been descended to "Wibinmyeongnonggi", "Nonggajibseong" and "Gwanongsocho" in the $16\sim18^{th}$ century of our country. The method was applied to rice paddy after applying direct-seeding, burning by unit before watering to remove weeds and to save rice plants. It would be applied with a method of using non-selective herbicide such as paraquat and oxyfluorfen, or radiation treatment, as a simple and safe weed removing method.

• Plant Resources
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2004

The reduced ratio of red:far-red (R:FR) light acts as a measure of the proximity of competitors and plants can detect the potentially competing neighbor plants by perceiving reflected R:FR signals and initiate the response of “shade avoidance” before actual shading occurs. The phytochrome system is responsible for monitoring the changes in the R:FR and initiating the shade avoidance response. The response to low R:FR ratio was studied in a white aspen Populus alba clone ‘Bolleana’ using two filter systems: a clear plastic filter system that allows a R:FR ratio less than 1.0 to pass from adjacent border plant reflection; and a special commercial plastic that blocks FR light and creates a R:FR ratio above 3.0. The reduced R:FR signals enhanced the stem elongation in response to competition at the expense of relative stem diameter growth. Trees grown inside clear chambers were 27 ％ taller than trees grown inside the FR-blocking filter chambers. Stem taper of clear chamber trees was 16％ less than the FR-blocking filter trees. Low R:FR also induced 22％ more stem dry weight and 13％ greater petiole length per leaf compared to the FR-blocking filter trees. There were no statistically significant differences in leaf area, leaf number increment, and total dry weight between the two light filter treatments.