Harmine, a beta-carboline alkaloid isolated from the seeds of Peganum harmala has been reported as a promising drug candidate for cancer therapy. However, the effect of harmine on breast cancer remains still unclear. In this study, the effect of harmine on the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer MDA-MB231 cells and the underlying mechanism were investigated. The results indicated that harmine inhibited the proliferation MDA-MB231 cells in a dose-dependent manner and markedly suppressed migration and invasion of MDA-MB231 cells. The mechanism involved in part through Notch signaling. The Notch activity was significantly inhibited by harmine treatment and harmine suppressed the expression of Jagged1 which is a key ligand to activate Notch signaling. These findings suggest a novel mechanism of harmine on anti-cancer activity and harmine may act as a potential therapeutic drug for breast cancer treatment.

Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) is a very well-known causative agent for viral myocarditis and meningitis in human. However, the effective vaccine and therapeutic drug are not developed yet. CVB3 infection activates host cell AKT signaling. Inhibition of AKT signaling pathway may attenuate CVB3 replication and prevent CVB3-mediate viral myocarditis. In this study, we determined antiviral effect of the selected natural plant extract to develop a therapeutic drug for CVB3 treatment. We screened several chemically extracted natural compounds by using HeLa cell-based cell survival assay. Among them, Linum usitatissimum L. extract was selected for antiviral drug candidate. L. usitatissimum extract significantly decreased CVB3 replication and cell death in CVB3 infected HeLa cells with no cytotoxicity. CVB3 protease 2A induced eIF4G1 cleavage and viral capsid protein VP1 production were dramatically decreased by L. usitatissimum extract treatment. In addition, virus positive and negative strand genome amplification were significantly decreased by 1 mg/ml L. usitatissimum extract treatment. Especially, L. usitatissimum extract was associated with inhibition of AKT signal and maintain mTOR activity. In contrast, Atg12 and LC3 expression were not changed by L. usitatissimum extract treatment. In this study, the potential AKT signal inhibitor, L. usitatissimum extract, was significantly inhibited viral genome replication and protein production by inhibition of AKT signal. These results suggested that L. usitatissimum extract is a novel therapeutic agent for treatment of CVB3-mediated diseases.

Malus sieboldii is a dicotyledonous plant that grows widely in Jeju Island and Ganghwa Island in Korea. Malus sieboldii has been known as a detoxifying and antioxidant plant, but study on allergic diseases is not known. In this study, we investigated the effect of Malus sieboldii extract (MSE) on the activation of mast cells, which is well known to be a critical causative cell to induce allergic diseases. As a result of our experiments, MSE inhibited the degranulation and inflammatory cytokine secretion from mast cells by antigen stimulation. As the mechanism of MSE in mast cells, it inhibited the activation of Syk kinase, a essential signaling protein activated by antigen, and further inhibited activation of $PLC{\gamma}$ and MAP kinase(P38, ERK1/2, and JNK). Furthermore, in vivo animal studies showed that MSE significantly inhibited IgE-mediated passive cutaneous anaphylaxis and passive systemic anaphylaxis in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, the results of this study showed for the first time that MSE inhibited IgE-mediated allergic responses by suppressing Syk kinase in mast cells. Therefore, it could be considered that MSE is worth developing as an anti-allergic material.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of joint disease, characterized by articular cartilage, osteonecrosis, and osteochondral bone erosion. It is an early, progressive disease that combines joint stiffness and joint pain and reduces cartilage function and condition. Interleukin-1 beta ($IL-1{\beta}$) is thought to be important to the pathogenesis of OA and significantly increases the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which play an important role in cartilage degradation in OA. Sparassis crispa (Wulf.) is an edible / medicinal mushroom that has been reported to variety of biological activities. In this study, investigated the Anti-inflammatory effect of Sparassis crispa (Wulf.) ethanol extract (SCE) on $IL-1{\beta}$ stimulated SW1353 chondrocytes. SCE decreased the expression and activity of MMPs by $IL-1{\beta}$ and decreased the levels of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) associated with the inhibition of prostaglandin E2($PGE_2$) in $IL-1{\beta}$ stimulated SW-1353 chondrocytes. In addition, SCE inhibits the expression of MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) and $NF-{\kappa}B$ (nuclear factor-kappa B) signaling in $IL-1{\beta}$ stimulated SW-1353 cells, and SCE inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) through heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression. Thus, it is suggested that SCE has a potential as an anti-inflammatory agent in osteoarthritis treatments.

Recently, consumer demand for functional cosmetics containing natural ingredients has been greatly expanded. To develop the natural cosmetic materials, we selected 3 plants, Chrysanthemum zawadskii Herbich (CZ), Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton var. acuta Kudo (PF), and Rosa multiflora Thunberg (RM) which showed high total flavonoid contents (TFC), total polyphenol contents (TPC), and strong DPPH radical scavenging effect. We determined astragalin, chlorogenic acid, and rosmarinic acid as a marker compound for quantitative analysis of the content of each material and standardization of the quality standards and manufacturing standards through LC/MS analysis. HPLC-DAD was used to simultaneously analyze these marker components of three natural product complexes (Mix) and to validate the analytical method through experiments such as linearity, accuracy and precision. The detection wavelengths were set at 210, 265, and 330 nm. The detected 3 compounds from extract of CZ, PF, RM showed significant linearity ($R^2${\geq_-}$0.9947). The limit of detection (LOD) of chlorogenic acid, astragalin and rosmarinic acid were $8.29{\mu}g/ml$, $2.28{\mu}g/ml$, and $27.00{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The limit of quantification (LOQ) of chlorogenic acid, astragalin and rosmarinic acid were $25.11{\mu}g/ml$, $6.92{\mu}g/ml$, and $81.83{\mu}g/ml$, respectively. The contents of the three indicators of Mix were 19.82-24.71 mg/g of chlorogenic acid, 43.80-46.02 mg/g of astragalin, and 46.33-48.57 mg/g of rosmarinic acid.

Methanol extract of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Labiatae) root was investigated to research the anti-oxidative activity, by using a Caenorhabditis elegans model system. The methanol extract of this plant showed significant DPPH radical scavenging and superoxide quenching activities. Ethyl acetate soluble fraction of the methanol extract that showed the most potent DPPH radical scavenging and superoxide quenching activities. The ethyl acetate fraction was tested on its activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and oxidative stress tolerance in C. elegans. Furthermore, in order to see if regulation of stress-response genes is responsible for the increased stress tolerance of the ethyl acetate fraction treated C. elegans, we checked SOD-3 expression using a transgenic strain. Consequently, the ethyl acetate fraction of S. miltiorrhiza root increased the catalase and SOD activities in a dose-dependent manner in C. elegans. Besides, the ethyl acetate fraction-treated CF1553 worms showed higher SOD-3::GFP intensity than the non-treated ones.

'EGCG(epigallocatechin gallate) rich Green Tea extract(EGTE)' was prepared by a convenient chromatographical manner using water and alcohol which was regarded as the most suitable and appropriate process for food manufacturing. The EGCG content in EGTE was estimated above 97%. Analysis of polyphenol components in green tea, i.e., catechin(C), epigallocatechin(EGC), epicatechin(EC), epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG), epicatechin gallate(ECG) and caffeine was performed by HPLC. The optimized HPLC method exhibited a good linearity of calibration curve, accuracy and precision. The long-term stability evaluation of EGTE was carried out with a powdered formulation and solution formulation by estimating the color change and measuring the EGCG content by HPLC analysis for one year. The EGCG content of the powdered EGTE stored in a transparent bottle at room temperature was retained over 97% at the end of the experimental period. The EGCG content of 0.1% water solution of EGTE stored in a transparent bottle at RT were observed to decrease below 30%, whereas that stored at $2^{\circ}C$ retained over 70%, respectively. These results suggested that a powdered formulation could be recommended for the commercialized nutraceutical product of EGTE rather than a solution formulation.

Alnus sibirica Fisch. ex Turcz.(AS) geographically distributes in Korea, Japan, Northeast China and Russia. The bark of Alnus species have been used as traditional medicine for the treatment of allergic skin diseases. The content evaluation of compounds which were isolated from the barks of A. sibirica processed enzymatic hydrolysis(EAS); hirsutanonol(1), 5-O-methylhirsutanonol(2), rubranol(3), hirsutenone(4) and muricarpone B(5) was conducted using HPLC. Consequently, in EAS, the content of glycoside was decreased considerably. But the aglycones(1, 3 and 4) were increased highly and 2, 5 were formed newly.

This study was carried out to obtain the basic informations for phenolic compounds by various sections of Acanthopanacis Caulis. The phenolic compounds of Korean Acanthopanacis bark and lignum (Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus, Acanthopanax koreanum) were measured by the HPLC analysis. The content of total phenolic components of Acanthopanax koreanum bark (1.532%) was about 9.9 times higher than that of Acanthopanax koreanum lignum (0.155%). And also, The content of total phenolic components of Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus bark (0.420%) was about 2.8 times higher than that of Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus lignum (0.149%). Eleutheroside E, a functional ingredient of Acanthopanacis Caulis, showed 3.6 times higher contents of Acanthopanax koreanum bark (0.144%) than Acanthopanax koreanum lignum (0.040%). In the case of Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus bark (0.129%), the content of the eleutheroside E was 1.7 times higher than that of the Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus lignum (0.074%).

Socheongryong-tang (SCRT) was one of the major traditional herbal medicines wildly used in the treatment of respiratory disease. SCRT is being commercially produced in the form of mix extracts powder and soft dry extract by different extract methods in the Korean Herbal Pharmacopeia (KHP). In this study, the contents of marker components and biological activities of the SCRT mix extract powder were compared with those of the SCRT decoction. To analyze the marker components of SCRT, nine marker from eight herbal preparations were chosen. And the method using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode-array detector method was established for the simultaneous analysis. Method validation was accomplished by linearity, precision test, and recovery test. The contents of nine marker components in this extract was ascertained by ratio. The biological activities were examined the effect of SCRT on anti-oxidation and pro-inflammation mediated by LPS-stimulation. We confirmed that both of SCRT mix extrct powder and decoction have the similar contents on total polyphenol and flavonoid and inhibited the secretion of nitric oxide (NO), $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$ and the expression of iNOS, COX-2, $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6, $TNF-{\alpha}$. These results suggest that SCRT mix extract powder and decoction have a significant correlation.

Hwanggeumjackyak-tang (HJT) composed of Scatellaria baicalensis Georgi, Paeonia Lactiflora and Glycyrrhizae uralensis Fischer is a traditional Korean herbal medicine widely used for acute enteritis. In order to develop the tablet formulation of HJT, evaluation of the flow properties, thickness, diameter, hardness, friability and disintegration was carried out on four HJT granules according to mixed content of seven additives. Simultaneous analysis used HPLC method was performed of HJT tablet and was determined of the seven marker components; Albiflorin, Paeoniflorin, Liquiritin, Baicalin, Baicalein, Glycyrrhizic acid and Wogonin. The biological activities were examined the effect of HJT on anti-oxidation and pro-inflammation mediated by LPS-stimulation. We confirmed that both of HJT-Decoction (HJT-D) and HJT-Formulation (HJT-F) have the similar contents on total polyphenol and flavonoid and inhibited the secretion of nitro oxide (NO), interleukin $(IL)-1{\beta}$,interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$ and the expression of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), $IL-1{\beta}$, IL-6, $TNF-{\alpha}$. Therefore, the developed formulation for tablet of HJT would provide chemically and biologically the same effect compared with decoction of HJT.