• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.527-539
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• 2023

Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an important vegetable and spice crop that has been cultivated worldwide. Pepper fruits have unique taste and aroma, providing a variety of antioxidants and compounds important for human health, which makes a high economic value. In addition, there is a high demand for new pepper varieties, according to consumer's preference. However, pepper is a recalcitrant plant for in vitro tissue and organ differentiation and plant regeneration, which makes it difficult to develop demanded varieties using newly developed technologies such as genetic engineering and gene editing. In this study, tissue culture and regeneration conditions were investigated using seven pepper varieties that were obtained from the core-collection of Seoul National University. We observed callus and bud induction and shoot formation using several media composition composed of different cytokinins and auxin concentrations. As a result, it was found that there were differences in callus induction and shoot formation of each variety depending on the hormone composition, and the highest regeneration was shown when the medium containing Zeatin Riboside and the petioles of seedlings were used. In particular, out of seven pepper varieties, CMV980 exhibited a higher regeneration efficiency (approximately 48%) than other varieties, followed by Yuwolcho. Therefore, this study provides CMV980 and Yuwolcho as good candidates that can be used for pepper transformation, which might contribute to the development of various varieties through gene editing technology in the future.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.287-297
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• 2021

Cornus officinalis Siebold & Zucc. is traditionally used as an edible and medicinal plant in many countries in East Asia. Previous studies have shown the pharmacological potential of extracts and components of C. officinalis, but comparative analysis of the composition of the leaf, stem, and fruit extracts has been insufficient to date. In the present study, the content of active antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients was verified in different C. officinalis parts (under-ripe sansuyu, ripe sansuyu, seed, leaf, stem, and dried sansuyu). One active component, morroniside, was high in fruit (under-ripe and ripe sansuyu), while loganin was high in fruit (under-ripe sansuyu) and cornin was high in seeds. Total polyphenol contents were highest in fruit (ripe sansuyu) and flavonoids were highest in leaves. DPPH radical scavenging activity was highest in leaves, followed by seeds and then ripe sansuyu extract. The anti-inflammatory efficacy of leaf extracts of C. officinalis (LCO) was further investigated by measuring their effects on levels of nitric oxide (NO) and the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 in RAW 264.7 macrophages. Non-cytotoxic concentrations of LCO effectively decreased the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced expression of inducible NO synthase, resulting in decreased NO production. LCO also significantly suppressed LPS-induced production and expression of IL-1β and IL-6. Taken together, the present findings suggest that C. officinalis leaves have potential as natural materials for the development of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agents.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.268-275
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• 2023

This study was conducted to confirm the utilization of Pleurospermum camtschaticum root extract as an organic agricultural material. Antioxidant activity of P. camtschaticum root extract, closely related to antibacterial activity, increased in a dose-dependent manner. In mycelial growth inhibitory activity, 100% P. camtschaticum root extract supressed over 70% for Colletotrichum coccodes and over 68% for Colletotrichum dematium. In the pepper fruit anthracnose development test, the size of the lesion decreased in a dose-dependent manner, which showed the same tendency as the previous results in inhibitory activity on mycelial growth. In the pepper seed germination and red pepper growth promotion test of P. camtschaticum root extract, oposite results was confirmed. The lower the concentration, the more the seed germination and growth promotion effects were shown. The phenol content of pepper leaves was also measured after pepper growth promotion test have been completed. The phenol content related to antibacterial activity increased in all treated groups compared to the untreated group. Therefore, the results of this study showed the possibility of development as an organic material.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.191-195
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• 2014

Essential oils extracted or purified from various plants have shown various beneficial effects. Seed parts of Schizandra chinensis Baillon (Schisandrae Semen) have been used as a traditional medicine for thousands of years in parts of Asia, including Korea, China, and Japan. However, the pharmacological mechanisms of essential oils purified from S. fructus (S. chinensis Baillon) remain largely unresolved. The aim of this study was to investigate the safety of Schisandrae Semen essential oil (SSeo) by a single- dose toxicity study in mice. SSeo was orally administered at a dose of 5,000 mg/kg in ICR mice. All animals were sacrificed after 14 days of treatment. After a single administration, mortality, clinical signs, body weight changes, and gross pathological findings were observed for 14 days. We also measured parameters of organ weight, clinical chemistry, and hematology. No toxicological change related to the test substance or mortality was observed after administration of a single oral dose of SSeo. There were no adverse effects on clinical signs, body weight, or organ weight and no gross pathological findings in any treatment group. The clinical chemistry and hematological parameters were within the normal ranges except total bilirubin. Therefore, the approximate lethal dose for oral administration of SSeo in mice was considered to be over 5,000 mg/kg. The results on the single-dose toxicity of SSeo indicate that it is not possible to reach oral dose levels related to death or dose levels with any harmful side effects.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.167-173
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• 2005

Three different cDNAS for cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) which are involved in the second step of the general phenylpropanoid pathway were isolated and designated as pc4h1 (1,755 bp), pc4h2 (1,655 bp), and pc4h3 (1,316 bp), respectively. The nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that both pc4h1 and pc4h2 clones encode polypeptides of 505 amino acids frame but pc4h3 clone was truncated at the 5'-end of coding region. The alignment of the deduced amino acid sequences showed that PC4H1 and PC4H2 are highly homologous (95.8% identical) with each other and contain three conserved domains which are typical in cytochrome P450 monooxygenase: proline-rich region, threonine-containing binding pocket for the oxygen molecule, and heme binding region. In addition, result of the phylogenic tree analysis revealed that both pepper C4Hs belong to Class 1. pc4h2 transcription was strongly induced in wounded fruit (400%) and root (200%) relative to its very low basal level but not in leaf or stem tissue. In case of pc4h1, the basal level of transcription was higher than pc4h2 but induction by wounding was lower in fruit and root while leaf and stem tissues did not respond to wounding. The basal level of pc4h3 transcripts was not, if any, detectable and response to wounding was not observed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 2018

In the Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Judas, Greece, and Rome, Phoenix dactylifera was planted in gardens or orchards to signify life, blessing, and victory. Branches of Phoenix dactylifera, likened to high and precious, were referred to one of the gifts to the king in the second century BC and have been used in the Feast of Tabernacles. And they were engraved on the walls of the temple and along with cherub. Besides, Phoenix dactylifera is compared with a righteous person in the Bible since it grows straight despite strong winds. And, it was used as a symbol of honesty, justice, and right. Churches call the week before Easter Palm Sunday since the crowd laid the leaves of date palm trees on the road and shouted "Hosanna" while waving the date palm branches when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Moreover, pilgrim in the Middle Ages was called 'Palmer' in English due to custom of returning with the leaves and branches of date palm trees as a memorial of the Holy Land pilgrimage. This study analyzes naming issue of Phoenix dactylifera through the old literature and 27 versions of the most influential Bibles in History of Bible Translation in Korea, China, and Japan. Phoenix dactylifera is translated into Chinese as '棕櫚(Trachycarpus fortunei)', a native tree of China. 棕櫚 is similar to Phoenix dactylifera, but its fruit and leaf are quite distinct. This being so, translating Phoenix dactylifera as 棕櫚 has a limit to convey symbolic meaning adequately. In the Japanese Bible, on the other hand, Phoenix dactylifera is translated as 'なつめやし(Natsumeyashi)' meant date palm tree. Most of Protestant Bible in Korea use 'Jongryeo' like Chinese Bible while translation in Korean Catholic Bible(2005) varies from one scripture to another: 'Yaja Namu (Palm Tree)' - 38 times, 'Jongryeo Namu' - 5 times, and 'Daechu Yaja Namu (Date Palm Tree)' - 3 times. Date Palm Tree, 'Jongryeo Tree', and Palm Tree don't grow in Korea. However, they had long been recognized as Haejo(海棗), Jongryeo(?櫚), and Yaja(椰子) respectively through China and Japan. Each of them called by a distinct name correspond with its own characteristic and used separately in Korean Classics as Jongryeo and Haejo were identified in ancient Chinese literatures. It seems that more confusion was raised since 'Palm' was translated as 'Jongryeo' in several books including "?藤和英大辭典 (1915)", "Modern 朝鮮外來語辭典(1938)", and "Latin-Korean Dictionary(1995)". However, the Latin term 'Palmae' is translated into English as either palm tree or date palm. The results of this study suggest that more accurate translation of Phoenix dactylifera in the Bible would be 'Daechu Yaja Namu (Date Palm Tree)' and using different name fit for its own characteristic would be more appropriate.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

A total of 20 agricultural organic materials including inorganic compounds, plant oils and plant extracts were used in the study for assessing the control efficacy on pepper diseases. Among inorganic compounds, only copper hydroxide showed inhibitory effect on both Phytophthora capsici causing Phytophthora blight and Colletotrichum acutatum causing anthracnose. Phosphorous acid inhibited the growth of P. capsici on PDA, and Sulfur/quicklime had it on that of C. acutatum. Plant essential oil, rosemary oil, and rapeseed oil among plant oils and plant extract of Japanese apricot/ginkgo nut inhibited the mycelial growth of the two pathogens. In the screening using pepper plant seedlings, the control efficacy on Phytophthora blight in 6-leaf stage of seedling was superior to that in 4-leaf stage of seedling. A protective effect on Phytophthora blight was displayed by copper hydroxide, sulfur/quicklime, water soluble calcium, phosphorous acid, plant essential oil, and cloves extract. When C. acutatum was inoculated by the non-wound method, copper hydroxide and rapeseed oil showed excellent protective activities with control values of 91.3% and 82.6%, respectively. However, copper hydroxide did not show any activity, when C. acutatum was inoculated after wounding pepper fruits. All organic materials never showed the curative effect on Phytophthora blight and anthracnose in pepper seedling assay and fruit assay.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.401-418
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• 2007

We performed the numerical analyses of thirty two morphological characters for twenty four populations of eight Korean Ilex L. taxa. Principal component analyses showed that the first three principal components were related to the total covariance by 67.0%, and the proportions of PCl, PC2 and PC3 were 31.5%, 21.1%, and 14.4%, respectively. And the closely related characteristics to the PCl, PC2 and PC3 were some reproductive characters such as the morphology of sepal, petal, anther, pistil and fruits and vegetative characters such as the morphology of petiol and leaf margin, the trichomes on the twigs, the leaf duration. From the two dimensional plottings by the eigenvalues of PCl, PC2 and PC3, six grouped were clustered as Ilex integra, I cornuta, I x wandoensis, I. rotunda, I. macropoda and I. macropoda for. pseudomacropoda, I. crenata and I. crenata var. microphilla. The numerical analysis was useful for the taxonomy of Korean Ilex because it clearly seperated the populations of taxa included in this study. The identification key was provided with the diagnostic characters.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.1400-1408
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• 2016

The black currant (Ribes nigrum L.) is belong to the Grossulariaceae family, and has piquant berries, which can be eaten as raw or as processed foods, such as jams, jelly, juice and syrups. In this study, the fresh juice of black currant (FJBC) from Austria and its subsequent organic solvent fractions, such as hexane fraction, ethylacetate (EA) fraction, butanol fraction and water residue, were prepared and their in-vitro anti-oxidant, anti-coagulation and anti-platelet aggregation activities were evaluated. The FJBC and EA fraction, which has concentrated polyphenol and flavonoid, showed strong radical scavenging activities and reducing power. The $RC_{50}s$ of EA fraction against DPPH anion, ABTS cation, nitrite were 136.3, 66.2 and $115.5{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, those are 1/10, 1/16, and 1/7.7 of $RC_{50}s$ of vitamin C. In anti-coagulation assay, the FJBC, EA and butanol fraction showed significant inhibitory activities against thrombin, prothrombin and coagulation factors. Furthermore, the anti-platelet aggregation activities of EA and butanol fraction were the stronger than that of aspirin. The concentrations required for 50% platelet aggregation inhibition of aspirin, EA and butanol fraction were 0.395, 0.192 and 0.261 mg/ml, respectively. The EA and butanol fraction have no hemolysis activities up to 0.5 mg/ml against human red blood cells. The results suggest that the FJBC and its EA and butanol fraction have high potentials as novel anti-thrombosis agents. This report provides the first evidence of anti-thrombosis activity of black currant.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.242-253
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• 1980

This experiment was carried out to evaluate the possibility of wine-making with Elderberry cultivated in Korea. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. The Elderberry fruits were composed of 82.8% moisture, 0.82% crude fat, 3.73% crude protein and 0.83% crude ash. 2. The Elderberry juices were composed of 9.2% sugar, 0.62% total acidity (as tartaric acid), pH 4. 46 and the percentage juice extraction ratio from fruits was 61.4%. 3. In fermentation experiments carried out with two strains, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ellipsoideus showed better characteristics for wine-making than Saccharomyces cerevisiae montrachet. 4. In fermentation experiments carried out with Saccharomyces cerevisiae ellipsoideus under different storage conditions, frozen fruits showed better characteristics for wine-making than dried fruits. 5. In fermentation experiments carried out with Saccharomyces cerevisiae ellipsoideus under different pressing times, red wine and pink wine showed little difference. 6. The results of organic acid contents determined by gas chromatography showed that citric acid was the main acid for frozen fruit, and lactic acid for both dried fruit and wines. 7. Sensory evaluation showed that the wine pressed at the 3rd day had the best palatability but the wine fermented with the dried fruits had the worst among the tested.