• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.567-573
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• 2001

Lactobacilli have been generally recognized as an important lactic acid bacteria present in the normal human intestinal flora. Fifty two Lactobacillus isolates were recovered from the feces of healthy Koreans whose age ranged from thirteen days after birth to 37 years. Among the isolates above, 17 isolates were tentatively identified as strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus and 3 isolates as strains of Lactobacillus casei. For their characterization, these twenty isolates were subjected to the experiments for the resistance to the artificial gastric juice, pH2.5 and bile salt. Interestingly, 3 strains survived pH 2.5 after 3 hour incubation in the artificial gastric juice with more than 75% of survival rate. L. acidophilus a-4 had the highest survival rate of 100%. Four strains including L. acidophilus a-3 grew gradually in MRS broth in the presence of the artificial bile salt. Cholesterol assimilation was also tested for the 20 isolates. The result showed that cholesterol concentration of the medium was reduced by 10 Lactobacillus isolates with more than 60%, as compared to the control. L. acidophilus a-2 had the highest reduction rate of 77%. Judging from these data obtained in vitro, some isolates ware likely to reach the lower small intestine after consumption without a significant loss of viability, suggesting that they had the potential to be developed as a probiotic culture which might lower the cholesterol level in human.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.410-420
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• 2019

Citrus unshiu peel extracts possess a variety of beneficial effects, and studies on their anticancer activity have been reported. However, the exact mechanisms underlying this activity remain unclear. In the current study, the apoptotic effect of ethanol extract of C. unshiu peel (EECU) on human breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells and related mechanisms were investigated. The results showed that the survival rate of MDA-MB-231 cells treated with EECU was significantly inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner, which was associated with the induction of apoptosis. EECU-induced apoptosis was associated with the activation of caspase-8 and caspase-9, which initiate extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways, respectively, and caspase-3, a representative effect caspase. EECU suppressed the expression of the inhibitor of apoptosis family of proteins, leading to an increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and proteolytic degradation of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase. EECU also enhanced the loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential and cytochrome c release from the mitochondria to the cytosol, along with truncation of Bid. In addition, EECU activated AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and compound C, an AMPK inhibitor, significantly weakened EECU-induced apoptosis and cell viability reduction. Furthermore, EECU promoted the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which acted as upstream signals for AMPK activation as pretreatment of cells, with the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine reversing both EECU-induced AMPK activation and apoptosis. Collectively, these findings suggest that EECU inhibits MDA-MB-231 adenocarcinoma cell proliferation by activating intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways, which was mediated through ROS/AMPK-dependent pathways.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.295-302
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• 2019

Liquiritigenin (LG) is a chiral flavonoid isolated from the roots of licorice. It exhibits multiple biological activities including anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory effects. In particular though, the anti-cancer activity of LG in oral squamous cell carcinoma has yet to be elucidated, and LG-induced apoptosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma remains poorly understood. In the present study, we tested the role of LG in inducing apoptosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. LG treatment of HN22 cells resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of cell viability as detected by a 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. The induction of apoptosis in terms of Annexin V/7-Aminoactinomycin D staining, sub-G1 population, and multi-caspase activity were assessed with a $Muse^{TM}$ Cell Analyzer. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that LG treatment resulted in G2/M arrest in cell cycle progression and downregulation of cyclin B1 and CDC2 expression in a concentration-dependent manner. It also resulted in significant upregulation of p27. In addition, LG was seen to trigger the generation of reactive oxygen species and induce CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein and 78-kDa glucose-regulated protein in concentration-dependent upregulation. The LG treatment of HN22 cells led to a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (${\Delta}{\Psi}m$); it also reduced the levels of anti-apoptotic protein and increased the expression of apoptotic protease activating factor-1, cleaved poly (ADP-ribose)polymerase and Bax. Overall, our results indicate that the pro-apoptotic effects of LG in HN22 cells depend on the activation of both intrinsic and extrinsic signaling pathways. Thus, our results suggest that LG constitutes a natural compound with a potential role as an anti-tumor agent in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.327-337
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• 2022

Ecological restoration is considered a good means to prevent biodiversity loss in terms of the ecosystem's health and sustainability. However, there are difficulties in putting it into practice as there is no comprehensive and objective standard for the selection of plant species, such as environmental, ecological factors, and restoration goal setting. Therefore, this study developed an evaluation index necessary for selecting plant species for restoration using the Delphi method that synthesizes the opinions of the expert group. A survey with 38 questionnaires was conducted twice for experts in ecological restoration, etc., and the importance and priority of evaluation indicators were analyzed by dividing the restoration targets into inland and island regions. The result of the importance analysis showed that "native plants" had the highest average of 4.9 among the evaluation indices in both inland and island regions, followed by "seed security", "propagation", and "root growth rate". In the inland region, the index priority was analyzed in the order of "native plants", "appearance frequency", "root growth rate", "distribution range", and "seed security" in the island region, it was analyzed in the order of "native plants", "root growth rate", "appearance frequency", "distribution range", and "tolerance", showing slight differences between the two indicators. As a result of the importance and priority indicator analysis, we set the mean importance and priority of 4.1 and 2.9, respectively, in the inland region and 4.2 and 2.9, respectively, in the island region. As for the criteria of selecting plant species for ecological restoration, the "native plants" had the highest importance and priority. "Seed securing", 'viability", "topography", "proliferation", "tolerance", "soil conditions", "growth characteristics", "early succession", "distribution range", "appearance frequency", and "germination rate" were classified into subgroups of low importance and priority. The lowest indicators were "final stage of succession", "transition period", 'transition stage", "root", "reproduction", "soil", "appearance", "technology", "landscape", "climate", and "germination rate". We expected that the findings through objective verification in this study would be used as evaluation indicators for selecting native plant species for ecological restoration.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.56-65
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• 2022

Copper is one of the non-ferrous metals used in the electrical/electronic manufacturing industries due to its superior properties particularly the high conductivity and less resistivity. The effluent generated from the surface finishing process of these industries contains higher copper content which gets discharged in to water bodies directly or indirectly. This causes severe environmental pollution and also results in loss of an important valuable metal. To overcome this issue, continuous R & D activities are going on across the globe in adsorption area with the purpose of finding an efficient, low cost and ecofriendly adsorbent. In view of the above, present investigation was made to compare the performance of a plant root (Datura root powder) as a bio-adsorbent to that of the synthetic one (Tulsion T-42) for copper adsorption from such effluent. Experiments were carried out in batch studies to optimize parameters such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, feed concentration, etc. Results of the batch experiments indicate that 0.2 g of Datura root powder and 0.1 g of Tulsion T-42 showed 95% copper adsorption from an initial feed/solution of 100 ppm Cu at pH 4 in contact time of 15 and 30 min, respectively. Adsorption data for both the adsorbents were fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm. Experimental results were also validated with the kinetic model, which showed that the adsorption of copper followed pseudo-second order rate expression for the both adsorbents. Overall result demonstrates that the bio-adsorbent tested has a potential applicability for metal recovery from the waste solutions/effluents of metal finishing units. In view of the requirements of commercial viability and minimal environmental damage there from, Datura root powder being an effective material for metal uptake, may prove to be a feasible adsorbent for copper recovery after the necessary scale-up studies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 1970

Forest fires often destory forests that have taken years to grow in a few minutes. Forest fire therefore, is an important problem in forest management and have caused heavy losses to the nations economy. In order to resolve this problem many investigations have been made in many countries. However, ecological studies on the forest after accidental fire have not yet been made in Korea. In order to conduct such a study, a burned area on Mt. Samak which is located at Dukduwon-ri, Seo-myon, Chunsung-gun, Kangwon-do, was chosen as experimental plot in 1967. The remaining seeds were collected from the burned area, and investigations on their germination rate and their productivity were made comparing to those of the seeds of undemaged area, and following results were obtained. 1. The number of seed collected from the control plots were 740 while it was 537 from the test plots (Table 3, 4). It was considered that this difference between burned and unburned area was mainly due to the fact that some of the seeds had been burnt by the fire, and the unfavorable environmental conditions in the burned area was also considered to be a reason. In the germination rate in the control plots showed 28.1% while it was 3.2% in the test plots. This difference was considered to be due to complete loss of viability of the seed by burning and high heat. 2. In the test plots, sixteen seeds of the Alnus japonica were collected and six of these seeds germinated (index number 100) which was the highest germination rate among the species of collected seeds. From these results, it was considered that a high temperature (above $150^{\circ}C$) caused reduction of the germination rate (Quadrat. 1.2). Seeds of Carex lanceolata var. Nana, were appeared much more in the higher plots than in the lower plots and it seemed to be due to the fact that the forest floor plants were much more abundant in the lower plots than in the higher plots which is covered with shrubbery. And some small seeds midght be able to avoid the effect of fire being burried in the soil or under the gravel. 3. With Pinus densiflora, 43 seeds were collected, and 11 of these germinated in the control plots. However in the test plots, 11 seeds were collected and no seed germinated. This shows that the Pinus densiflora was the weakest in resisting to heat among the observed species in this study. 4. Without exception the germination rate showed a higher index in the herbs than in the woody plants and it is believed that the herbs produced more seed than the wood plants because of the abundance of herbs colony.