• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.153-157
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the applicability of functional materials by examining a variety of physiological activities with the extract of Cleyera japonica leaf. Cleyera japonica extract showed a low cytotoxicity against murine melanoma B16F10 cells. In little or no cytotoxicity at concentrations, we showed that the treatment with Cleyera japonica extract resulted in a significant increase in the DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀, 22.90 ㎎/L), similar to ascorbic acid (IC₅₀, 18.65 ㎎/L) and anti-microbial activities against Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans. In particular, anti-microbial activities against Gram-positive bacteria was high. These results suggest that Cleyera japonica extract could be used as a natural preservative. Additionally, Cleyera japonica extract showed the inhibition of tyrosinase activity (IC₅₀, 178.90 ㎎/L), similar to kojic acid (IC₅₀, 89.13 ㎎/L) and decreased melanin content (IC₅₀, 101.90 ㎎/L) higher than the control arbutin level (IC₅₀, 100.65 ㎎/L), especially. Therefore, these results indicate that Cleyera japonica extract may be an effective material for functional cosmetics such as skin whitening materials.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.922-928
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• 2012

Sulforaphane [1-isothiocyanato-4-(methylsulfinyl)-butane] is one of the most abundant isothiocyanates in some cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli. Sulforaphaene has been shown to exhibit many pharmacological activities, including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities. However, the anti-skin photoaging effects of sulforaphane have not yet been reported. In the present study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of sulforaphane on MMP-1 and -3 expressions of the human dermal fibroblasts via various in vitro experiments and elucidated the pathways of inhibition. Western blot analysis and real-time PCR revealed sulfiraphane inhibited UVB-induced MMP-1 and -3 expressions in a dose-dependent manner. UVB strongly activated nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ (NF-${\kappa}B$) activity, which was determined by NF-${\kappa}B$ DNA binding activity. UVB-induced NF-${\kappa}B$ activation and MMP expression were completely blocked by sulforphane. These findings suggest that sulforaphane could prevent UVB-induced MMPs expressions through inhibition of NF-${\kappa}B$ activation.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.171-178
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• 2023

Morus alba, a popular medicinal plant belonging to the family Moraceae, has long been used commonly in traditional medicine and has various physiological activities, including antidiabetic, anti-microbial, diuretic, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer activities. Morusinol was isolated from the root bark of M. alba; however, its biological effects have not yet been reported. Therefore, we examined the inhibitory effects of morusinol on human platelet aggregation, Ca²⁺ mobilization, and αIIb/β₃ activity. Our data showed that collagen-induced human platelet aggregation was inhibited by morusinol without cytotoxicity. In this study, we examined whether morusinol inhibits platelet aggregation through the regulation of integrin αIIb/β₃ and its associated signaling molecules. We observed that morusinol inhibited αIIb/β₃ activation by regulating vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, Akt (protein kinase B), and glycogen synthase kinase-3α/β. These results show that morusinol inhibited fibronectin adhesion, fibrinogen binding, and clot retraction. Taken together, morusinol shows strong antiplatelet and anti-clot retraction effects and is a potential therapeutic drug candidate to prevent platelet-related thrombosis and cardiovascular disease.

• The Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 1987

Ten species of herbae, which have been used to treat cancers in Chinese medicine, were tested to investigate their mutagenicity or antimutagenicity in S. typhimurium TA97, TA98, TA100, TA1535, and TA1538. Scolopendra centipede was weakly active in reversion of the frameshift mutation in S. typhimurium TA97 strain and the base-pair substitution in TA100 and TA1535 strains. Other herbae such as Coix lachryma, Dianthus superbus, Tricanthoshse kirilowii, Eupatorium formosanum, Lithospermum erythrorhizon, Ansaema japonicum, Curcuma zedoaria, Helicteres angustifolia, and Euonymus sieboldianus did not show any of the mutagenic potential, regardless of the metabolic activation with rat hepatic microsomal fraction. Dianthus superbus, Eupatorium formosanum, and Euonymus sieboldianus exhibited suppressive activities on microbial mutagenesis of N-methyl-N'-nitrosoguanidine, a base-pair substitution mutagen, in TA1535 and TA100 tester strains. The antimutagenic activities of Dianthus superbus and Euonymus sieboldianus appeared to be dose-dependant.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2021

Carnosol is a phenolic diterpene phytochemical found in rosemary and sage with reported anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic activities. This study aimed to investigate the effect of carnosol on the lineage commitment of mouse bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (mBMSCs) into osteoblasts and adipocytes. Interestingly, carnosol stimulated the early commitment of mBMSCs into osteoblasts in dose-dependent manner as demonstrated by increased levels of alkaline phosphatase activity and Alizarin red staining for matrix mineralization. On the other hand, carnosol significantly suppressed adipogenesis of mBMSCs and downregulated both early and late markers of adipogenesis. Carnosol showed to induce osteogenesis in a mechanism mediated by activating BMP signaling pathway and subsequently upregulating the expression of BMPs downstream osteogenic target genes. In this context, treatment of mBMSCs with LDN-193189, BMPR1 selective inhibitor showed to abolish the stimulatory effect of carnosol on BMP2-induced osteogenesis. In conclusion, our data identified carnosol as a novel osteoanabolic phytochemical that can promote the differentiation of mBMSCs into osteoblasts versus adipocytes by activating BMP-signaling.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2011

The anti-phytoplasma activities of surfactin (derived from Iranian native Bacillus subtilis isolates) and tetracycline towards Candidatus "Phytoplasma aurantifolia", the agent of lime Witches' broom disease, were investigated. HPLC was used to quantify the surfactin production in four previously characterized native surfactin-producing strains, and the one producing the highest amount of surfactin (about 1,500 mg/l) was selected and cultivated following optimized production and extraction protocols. Different combinations of purified surfactin and commercial tetracycline were injected into artificially phytoplasmainfected Mexican lime seedlings using a syringe injection system. An absolute quantitative real-time PCR system was developed to monitor the phytoplasma population shifts in the lime phloem during 3 months following the injections. The results revealed that the injections of surfactin or tetracycline had a significant inhibitory effect on Candidatus "P. aurantifolia". However, the combined treatment with both surfactin and tetracycline (1:1) resulted in the highest inhibition due to a synergic effect, which suppressed the phytoplasma population from about $2{\times}10^5$ to less than 10 phytoplasma units/g plant tissue.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2021

The phenolics of Sambucus sieboldiana var. pendula leaves for functional resources were examined on inhibitory activity against biological enzyme and anti-microbial activity. The amount of phenolic compounds were 11.60±0.18 and 12.43±0.07 mg/g by water and 50% ethanol extraction, respectively. The antioxidative activity of phenolic in extracts was higher than solids. The inhibition activities on angiotensin converting enzyme were 92.08 and 78.33% at 200 ㎍/mL phenolic concentration in water and ethanol extracts, respectively. The xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity were 100% at 200 ㎍/mL phenolic in water and ethanol extracts, respectively. These result was higher than 70.37% of allopurinol as positive control at 200 ㎍/mL. The inhibitory activity against hyaluronidase were each 25.35 and 43.38% in water and ethanol extracts. The water extract from S. sieboldiana var. pendula leaves showed antibacterial activity on the Propionebacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans in water extract and S. mutans in ethanol extract. This result suggests that phenolic from S. sieboldiana var. pendula leaves are suitable as functional foods with anti-hypertension, anti-gout, anti-inflammation and anti-microorganism activities.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.137-145
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• 2014

The biological activities of licorice F1 (Glycyrrhiza glabra ${\times}$ G. uralensis) lines (G) were investigated, revealing strong radical scavenging activity targeting 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and hydroxyl (${\cdot}OH$) radicals. At a concentration of $100{\mu}g/mL$, most of the licorice F1 lines scavenged DPPH and ${\cdot}OH$ by more than 80%. Gs-1, -2, and -6 can be considered good scavengers of DPPH radical and G-7 have higher antioxidant activity against ${\cdot}OH$ radical. In addition, licorice F1 lines exerted effective anti-microbial activities against Escherichia coli (Gs-12, -17, and -18) and Staphylococcus aureus (Gs-3, -4, -5, -21, and -26). Moreover, Gs-2, - 20, -31, and -32 effectively inhibited the growth of Helicobacter pylori. Among licorice F1 lines, Gs-25 exhibited high anti-inflammatory effects on nitric oxide produced by lipopolysaccharide- and interferon-${\gamma}$-activated RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, Gs-1, -12, and -20 inhibited the growth of AGS human gastric adenocarcinoma cells by more than 60% at a concentration of $100{\mu}g/mL$ and Gs-5, -11, -19, and -32 showed inhibitory effects against rat lens aldose reductase ($IC_{50}$ values, 1.69, 6.07, 6.12, and $4.54{\mu}g/mL$, respectively). The total content of glycyrrhizin (1), glycyrrhetinic acid (2), glabridin (3), and isoliquiritigenin (4) in licorice F1 lines was high in Gs-11, -15, and -30. The present study therefore indicated that Gs-2, -26, -31, and -32 of licorice F1 possessing strong anti-oxidative, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and aldose reductase inhibitory effects may be used as a possible source material for natural health supplements in the future.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.443-449
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• 2020

This study was performed to investigate total phenolic contents, anti-oxidant, biological disease-related enzyme inhibitory, and anti-microbial effects of extracts of Lonicera morrowii leaves prepared with water and 40% ethanol. Anti-oxidative activities of the extracts increased in a dose-dependent manner and were very high even at low phenolic concentration. At phenolic concentrations ranging between 50 and 200 ㎍/mL, the water and ethanol extracts inhibited 39.34-76.35 and 47.53-99.83% of xanthine oxidase activity, 30.21-79.06, and 59.40-87.14% of angiotensin converting enzyme activity, and 59.81-80.35 and 36.06-63.58% of α-glucosidase activity, respectively. All inhibitory effect were increased in a dose-dependent manner. In the paper disc agar diffusion assay against seven microbes, L. morrowii extracts had anti-bacteria activities against Helicobacter pylori, Propionibacterium acne but no effect against other bacteria. These results indicate that the extracts from L. morrowii leaves have the possibility to be developed as a physiologically functional source for prevention of adult diseases.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.452-459
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• 2020

This study was conducted to investigate the total lignin content and anti-oxidant activity in extracts of defatted sesame seeds (DSS) fermented with 15 strains of Bacillus subtilis. The anti-oxidant activities of DSS were analyzed both before and after fermentation. The total lignan content of the DSS extracts fermented with BCH3678 (1,613.8 mg/l) and BCH3572 (1,599.5 mg/l) were relatively high compared to other strains. Anti-oxidant activity was determined according to phenolic compound and flavonoid content and DPPH radical scavenging rate; the highest total phenolic compound content was provided by the DSS with SRCM103716 at 2,803.3 mg GAE/g which returned total flavonoid content of 1,553.1 mg/g as strong correlation of its anti-oxidant activity. The DSS extract fermented by SRCM103716 at 37℃ for 24 hr showed the highest DPPH scavenging rate at 66.5%. The fermented DSS extracts, regardless of strain, demonstrated higher anti-oxidative activity than the unfermented control, and these results suggest that such extracts could be useful as a potential source of bioactive compounds.