• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.316-323
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• 2012

Morphological characters of Adonis pseudoamurensis W. T. Wang and its related species were examined to illustrate its taxonomic entity, and their new key was made. As a result, it shows that A. ramosa Franch., an endemic species in Japan, was sparsely pubescent on the abaxial surface of the leaf and petiole, and its sepal was as long as its petal. However, A. pseudoamurensis is glabrous on the same surfaces and its sepal was shorter than its petal. In addition, A. multiflora Nishikawa et Ko. Ito was clearly distinguished in that it had acuminate leaf apices, linear shape of the final lobes of leaf and scales on the branched stem. Meanwhile, A. pseudoamurensis featured petiolate at cauline leaves and pubescent on pistils, and these characters were common with their allied groups. But diagnostic key characters suggested by the original description such as sessile at cauline leaves and glabrous on pistils were not observed in this study.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.155-163
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• 2014

Adonis multiflora is a spring ephemeral herb growing in temperate deciduous forests. To determine the flowering properties of a natural population of A. multiflora, air temperature, flowering time, and flower-falling were monitored from February 2009 to May 2011. The A. multiflora population in this study started flowering in early March and ended it in mid-April. The average flowering duration of a flower was 14.4 days in 2009 and 19.6 days in 2011. The average duration of flower-falling was between 3.4 days and 4.2 days for three years. Cumulative flowering rate (CFR) was correlated with year day (YD), year day index (YDI), and Nuttonson's index (Tn), with correlation coefficients (CC) of over 0.9 at the 1% significance level; CC value between CFR and YD was the largest and that between CFR and YDI was the smallest. However, at the 5% significance level, CFR was closely related with Tn more than any other factors. The CCs between flowering times of two years in each plant were high and significant at 1% level. The YD value of flowering time of a flower was inversely related to its flowering duration significantly for three years. In a given plant, when more flowering started early, the flowering duration was longer. The first flower blossomed on 73.4 YD in 2010 and 78.9 YD in 2011, and remained for 16.7 days in 2009 and 27.4 days in 2011, respectively; the fifth flower developed on 92.5 YD in 2010 and 96.6 YD in 2011, and remained for 8.0 days in 2009 and 14.6 days in 2011. The YD differences between the flowering times of two flowers decreased in the order of inflorescence.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.561-567
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• 2015

This study aims to evaluate the antitumor effect of Adonis multiflora, one of the plants in the Ranunculaceae, on mice to which hepatoma cells were transplanted and to suggest its possibility as a candidate natural substance to replace antitumor drugs. We performed the MTT assay to assess the extract had a decrease in the growth rate of hepatoma cells depending on concentration. In particular, 100 ㎍/㎖ of the extract showed 40% of growth retardation rate. We assessed the autophagy activity to identify the inhibitory autophagy mechanism of tumor cells in the extract. This proved that the activity increases more as the concentration of the extract is higher. We conducted the Western blot test to confirmed the expression of two proteins LC3 and p62. The expression of p62 was in inverse proportion to the concentration of the extract whereas LC3-Ⅱ increased more as the concentration of the extract was higher. This showed that an increase in the autophagy relies on the conentration of the extract. We performed a test to discover the influence of the extracts on hepatoma cells transplanted to mice. The test proved that the extract triggers a significant decrease in the growth rate of tumor cells. Compared to the start of the test, the size of tumor cells with 50, 100 and 200 ㎎/㎏ of the extract respectively increased by 4, 3.7 and 3.5 times whereas in the controlling group by 6.3 times. The size of tumor cells in benign tumor controlling group increased by 3.1 times. This showed a significant decrease in the growth rate of tumor cells compared to the controlling group. We carried out the experiment of influence of the extract on the expression of two proteins LC3 and p62 in the tumor tissue transplanted into mice. The experiment showed that LC3-II increases more as the concentration of the extract is higher. However, there was a rapid decrease in p62 with 200 ㎎/㎏ of the extract compared to the controlling group. In this study, we proved that the autophagy activity of Adonis multiflora extract inhibits the growth of hepatoma cells by in vitro and in vivo experiments. In conclusion, the inhibitory autophagy mechanism of tumor cells in the extract can be used as a new treatment of antitumor.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.312-318
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• 2013

Morphological characters of aggregated achenes, and achene and its epidermal microstructures were observed for 7 taxa belonging to the section Adonanthe of subgenus Adonanthe [A. amurensis Regel et Radde, A. bobroviana Sim., A. davidii Franch., A. multiflora Nishikawa et Ko. Ito, A. pseudoamurensis W. T. Wang, A. ramosa Franch. and A. tianschanica (Adolf) Lipsch. ex Bobrov] and for 1 taxon belonging to the section Lophocarpa of subgenus Adonis (A. aestivalis var. parviflora M. Bieb.). The morphological characters such as shape of aggregated achenes, length of aggregated achenes, shape of achene, and recurved type of persistent style were useful in the classification of the subgenera Adonanthe and Adonis, and each species of the series under section Adonanthe. Epidermal microstructures of achene were grouped into three types according to the presence of microwrinkles and their arranged patterns. These microwrinkles were absent in A. amurensis, were of parallel type in A. bobroviana, A. pseudoamurensis, A. ramosa, and A. aestivalis var. parviflora, and were of parallelperpendicular mixed type in A. davidii, A. multiflora, and A. tianschanica. Also, a new key to them was made using morphological characters of their aggregated achenes and achene.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.435-454
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• 2003

The morphology of plants and scanning electro-microscopical features of fruits were examined to evaluate the taxonomic entities of Korean Adonis L. in sensu lato (Ranunculaceae). The species of Korean Adonis were readily diagnosed by the branching pattern of stem, the number of flowers, the bifurcation of leaf main axis, the number of tepals, the flowering periods in relation to leaf sprouting, and the number of stomata and the texture of fruit surface. This study demonstrates that there are three species, A. amurensis, A. pseudoamurensis, and A. multiflora., found in Korea. However, A. ramosa, which has been often claimed to be distributed in Korea, is not present in Korea.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.165-175
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• 2014

A natural population of Adonis multiflora, a spring ephemeral herb growing in temperate deciduous forests, was studied to determine the seed production characteristics. Plant size, flowering time, and seed number were monitored from February 2009 to May 2011 in main growing season (i.e., from March through May). The biomass rates of the shoot and the root in the A. multiflora population were 22-24% and 76-78%, respectively, and the biomass of the root was proportional to that of the shoot. The flowering rate was 60% in the plants with 1 to 2 g of shoot biomass, and 100% in the plants with >2 g of shoot biomass. In the plants with root biomass between 4 and 6 g, the flowering rate was 43% and, in the plants with the root biomass over 8 g, it was 100%. The shoot biomass was a better predictor of the flower production probability than the root biomass. The number of flowers and seeds was closely correlated to shoot biomass at 1% significance level. The size of the plant that produced seed excessively instead of the shoot biomass in one year typically decreased in the next year and vice versa. The flowering time and its duration were closely related to the number of faithful seeds but not to that of total seeds. The number of faithful seeds was proportionate to flowering duration and inversely proportionate to flowering time (year day, YD). In a plant, the number of faithful seeds noticeably decreased with the inflorescence (i.e., order of flower in a plant), and this difference between the two successive flowers was significant at the 1% level between the first and the third flower in 2009 and 2011 but not between the third and the fourth. However, the number of total seeds was mostly similar in the first through the fourth flower for all three years.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2016

DNA sequences of nrITS regions obtained from 49 accessions representing 12 species and one variety within the section Adonanthe of the genus Adonis were analyzed to test the previous intra-sectional classification system and to determine their phylogenetic relationships. The results showed that the seven accessions of A. amurensis Regel et Radde included in the present study did not form a monophyletic group, as some of the accessions showed a close relationship with the Japanese endemic species A. ramosa Franch., which implies that the current species delimitation and identification of A. amurensis is problematic. Adonis pseudoamurensis W. T. Wang, which is frequently misidentified as A. ramosa in Korea, formed a segregated group, which suggests that they should not be considered as conspecific taxa. Accessions from A. shikokuensis Nishikawa et Koji Ito, A. multiflora Nishikawa et Koji Ito, and A. pseudoamurensis formed a clade, but monophyly of each species was not evident. The nrITS data did not support the classification system proposed by Wang, who classified sect. Adonanthe into four series, as most of these were found to be either polyphyletic or paraphyletic.