• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2023

The demand for the fresh leaf of hooker chive, which is mainly used as functional roots and contains dietary sulfur or saponin, is increasing, but the leaves are only harvested 3-4 times per year under conventional field conditions. A plant factory system with different light qualities or intensities was applied for year-round production of the fresh leaves. Hooker chive (Allium hookeri) roots were hydroponically cultured under the plant factory with a mixture of blue plus red LEDs (Light-Emitting Diodes) and fluorescent lights for 50 weeks. Maximum leaf growth was attained with the 1.5 dS/m EC in the culture medium under the plant factory. The average leaf and shoot numbers of hooker chive grown hydroponically under a mixture of 200 µmol/m²/s LEDs increased by 147% and 140%, respectively compared to those under 100 µmol/m²/s LEDs at the 10th harvest. The leaf length of hooker chive grown under the LEDs treatment with the lowest light intensity significantly increased by 27% compared with the natural light treatment at the 10th harvest. However, there was no significant difference in leaf pigmentation between natural and 200 µmol/m²/s LEDs treatments. Plant factory with the mixture LEDs of blue and red lights can be applied for year-round production of hooker chive fresh leaves to ensure a stable supply of leafy vegetable throughout the year.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2016

Allium hookeri is used for food and medical materials in Asia. This study was carried out to elucidate the effects of shading rates on growth and quality of A. hookeri cultivation in greenhouse. Treatments were given with 35%, 55%, 75% and 95% shading rates and non-shading (Control). Photosynthesis photon flux density (PPFD) of control, 35%, 55%, 75%, and 95% shading were 792, 515, 351, 182, and $78.2{\mu}mol{\cdot}m{\cdot}s^{-1}$ respectively. The emergence ratio was 98% under non-shading, 35% and 75% shading condition, and it was 100% under 55% and 95% shading condition on April 20, 2016. These results showed no correlation between emergence rate and shading treatment. When shading net was set up inside at greenhouse, fresh weights in control, 35%, 55%, 75%, and 95% shading treatments were 1,142, 3,511, 5,936, 6,408 and 3,779kg/10a, respectively. When shading net was set up outside at greenhouse, fresh weights in control, 55%, 75%, and 95% shading treatments were 1,372, 5,442, 6,238 and 3,595kg/10a, respectively. Dry weight, percentage of dry matter, number of leavesand branches, plant height and root length in 75% shading treatment were higher than other shading treatments. From these results, we suggested that the proper shading rate in a greenhouse is 75% for A. hookeri cultivation in middle area of Korea.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.289-294
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• 2017

Diabetes mellitus is associated with insulin resistance, which leads to down-regulation of insulin signaling and the decreased glucose uptake. Adipocytes are sensitive to insulin, and closely implicated in insulin resistance and diabetes. Insulin stimulates differentiation of preadipocytes to adipocytes, and increases glucose transport. Allium species have been used as traditional medicine and health-promoting foods. Allium hookeri (A. hookeri) is reported to improve the pancreatic ${\beta}-cell$ damage and exhibit pancreatic anti-inflammatory activity in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. We investigated whether A. hookeri extract (AHE) may stimulate glucose uptake in adipocytes through increasing insulin sensitivity. AHE enhanced fat accumulation, a differentiation biomarker, under the partial induction of differentiation by insulin. $PPAR{\gamma}$, a transcription factor highly expressed in adipocytes, promotes adipocyte differentiation and insulin sensitivity. AHE increased the differentiation of preadipocytes through up-regulation of $PPAR{\gamma}$. The activation of $PPAR{\gamma}$ increases the GLUT4 expression during adipocyte differentiation. GLUT4 is responsible for glucose uptake into the adipocytes. AHE increased the expression of GLUT4 in adipocytes, and subsequently enhanced the insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. These results suggest that AHE promotes adipocyte differentiation through activation of $PPAR{\gamma}$, and leads to enhance glucose uptake in adipocytes along with GLUT4 up-regulation. Thus, AHE may be effective for the insulin-sensitizing and anti-diabetic activities.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.158-164
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• 2016

This study was conducted to verify the potential of Allium hookeri to control blood glucose metabolism in diabetes model. We fed the experimental diets(ALE, ARE) supplemented with the extract of Allium hookeri leaf or root at 1% of diet to the diabetic mice (C57BLKS/J, db/db) for 8 weeks. Hetero and control mice were fed the control diet without any extract of Allium hookeri leaf or root. At 8th week of feeding the diets, we measured body weight, blood glucose, HbA1c, and plasma insulin levels and conducted an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and staining insulin immunoreactive cells in islets of pancreas. ARE group treated with the root of A. hookeri showed significantly lower blood glucose levels than the Cont group at 120 min in the OGTT. However, HbA1c level was significantly reduced in both ALE and ARE groups, and higher serum insulin levels and increased density of insulin immunoreactive cells compared with the Cont group were found in these 2 groups. Based on these results, A. hookeri is considered to be effective in improving glucose tolerance by partially affecting insulin secretion and it may be used to prevent and treat diabetic disease.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.78-83
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• 2015

This study was conducted to verify the potential of Allium hookeri to control glucose metabolism in a diabetes model. We fed the experimental diets (AL, AR, Dex) supplemented with the powder of leaf, root, or dextrin as a positive control, respectively at 3% of diet to the diabetic mice (C57BLKS/J, db/db) for 8 weeks. Control mice were fed with the diet supplemented with cornstarch (Cont) at 3% level of diet. At 8th week of feeding the diets, we measured body weight, blood glucose, HbA1c, and plasma insulin levels and conducted an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and staining insulin immunoreactive cells in islets of pancreas. AL group treated with the leaf of A. hookeri showed significantly lower blood glucose and HbA1c levels, higher plasma insulin levels, and increased density of insulin immunoreactive cells compared with the Cont group. During the OGTT, AL group showed lower blood glucose levels than the Cont group for 120 min. Based on these results, leaf of A. hookeri is considered to be effective in improving glucose tolerance by partially affecting insulin secretion and it may be used to prevent and treat diabetic disease.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.132-137
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary Allium hookeri on growth performance, bone strength, and blood biochemical profiles in growing broiler chickens. Twelve hundreds of one-day old Arbor Acres male broilers were divided into 6 treatments with 4 replicates and 50 birds per replicate (n=200 chicks/treatment). Chickens fed basal diet (Control), basal diet with commercial X (Positive control) at 0.05% of diet, or each one of the experimental diets (L3, L5, R3, R5) supplemented with the powder of A. hookeri leaf or root at 0.3 and 0.5% of diet respectively for 5 weeks. At the 5th week of feeding the diets, body weight, tibia strength, and blood biochemical profiles including antibody titers were measured. Dietary A. hookeri (L3, L5, R3, R5) significantly increased final body weight than the control group. And the dietary leaf of A. hookeri effectively increased the growth performance than dietary root of A. hookeri. Interestingly dietary leaf of A. hookeri improved tibia strength than the control group and L3 showed the highest value. The antibody titers against infectious bursal disease (IBD) increased with the addition of dietary leaf of A. hookeri compared with positive control, R3, and R5 groups. But there was no significant difference in serum biochemical parameters such as albumin, globulin, glucose, cholesterol, Ca, P, total protein, total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase. These results suggest that A. hookeri can be used as a good supplement to improve growth performance and health by increasing bone strength and antibody titer against IBD without any anti-nutritional or toxic effects in growing broilers.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.148-153
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• 2015

Allium hookeri is a plant species native to India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and China. The plant is widely cultivated in Korea lately as a medicinal food item. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Allium hookeri (A. hookeri) on lipid metabolism in Type II diabetic mice (n=8/group, 5 groups). High fat diets with dextrin as a positive control (Dex), leaf (AL), root (AR), and fermented root (FAR) at 3% of diet were fed to all experimental mouse, respectively for 8 weeks. Body weight gain, liver and epididymal fat weights, and excreted fecal lipid levels were measured. Serum and hepatic lipid profiles were analyzed, and fat accumulation in liver was evaluated. In this study, body weight gain and epididymal fat weight were lower in the FAR group, while serum HDL-cholesterol level and excreted fecal total lipid and triglyceride levels were higher in AL or FAR groups. These results suggest that A. hookeri, specially fermented root can be a useful food item to control lipid metabolism in diabetic mice.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2019

In the process of adapting climate change, the government needs to provide policy and technical support necessary for growing promising crops imported from abroad. Therefore, this study was conducted to survey and analyze the conditions of growth of imported foreign crops and to derive response tasks. As a result, tropical and subtropical vegetables were cultivated 18 crops in 920 farms in 321 ha area (in 2015 year). The cultivation scale decreased in the order of Curcuma aromatica, Momordica charantia, Asparagus aethiopicus, Allium hookeri and Herbs. Tropical and subtropical fruits were cultivated 9 crops in 264 farms in 106.5 ha area (in 2015 year). Special and medicinal crops introduced abroad cultivated 10 crops in 753 farms in 276.3 ha area (in 2015 year). The cultivation scale decreased in the order of Curcuma longa, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Lepidium meyenii and Moringa oleifera. For the stable settlement of domestic growth of tropical and subtropical crops introduced abroad, there should be safety and economic feasibility in terms of the cultivation environment according to the domestic culture adaptation test. Consideration needs to be given to the use of locally grown products in Korea, the securing of distribution and sales markets, and the competitiveness of imported products.