• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.904-911
• /
• 2012

Yacon has been used in folk medicines as a medicinal tea for hypoglycemia treatment. In a recent study described herein, antioxidative, antibacterial, antifungal activities, and cell-protective functions of yacon leaves have been reported. To evaluate the effects on fibrosis on pancreatitis, the efficacy of 1% of yacon extract (YE) on dibutyltin dichloride (DBTC) (8 mg/kg)-induced pancreatitis in rats was examined. On the 21st day after the DBTC treatment, a large increase in collagen was observed in the pancreas in the DBTC-treatment group (DT). But this was noticeably decreased with YE. In relation to the expression of COX-2, there was no response or a very weak response in the pancreas of the control group (CON). However, in DT, strong expression of COX-2 was observed in the pancreas on the 14th day, and COX-2 was present in inflammatory cells in the pancreas of the DT, especially on the 21st day. The expression was decreased for YE compared with DT. A remarkable increase in TGF-${\beta}1$ expression was observed in inflammatory cells in the pancreas in DT on the 21st day, whereas the expression was not found in YE after 21 days. However, on the 21th day, TGF-${\beta}1$ expression was increased in acinar cells of YE compared with DT. VEGF expression was very similar to the expression of in the pancreas. These results suggest that YE has an inhibitory effect on DBTC-induced pancreatic fibrosis.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.7
• /
• pp.864-873
• /
• 2018

There has been increasing attention and research in various nanoparticle applications. Nanoparticles have been used for a variety of purposes in different departments including but not limited to cosmetics, food, machinery, and chemical. A highly sought-after field to use nanoparticles, especially natural or artificial silver nanoparticles (SNPs), is the utilization of their significant antimicrobial properties in daily items such as fabrics, indoor air filters, and, water filtration units where abundant bacterial and fungal growth are inevitable. These applications of SNPs, however, have enabled continuous human exposure and hence paved the way for potential SNP toxicity depending on exposure method and particle size. This potential toxicity has led to researches on safer antimicrobial solutions to be utilized in textile and filtration. In this context, products of natural origin have gained expanding interest due to their eco-friendly, cost-effective, and biologically safe properties along their promising antibacterial and antifungal activities. Natural product-applied fabrics and filters have been shown to be comparable to those that are SNP-treated in terms of ease production, material durability, and antimicrobial efficiency. This article summarizes and assesses the current state of in vitro and in vitro toxicity of SNPs and discusses the potential of natural products as an alternative.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.133-139
• /
• 2009

Yam (Dioscorea batatas Decne) has been recognized as healthy food due to its various biological activities, such as anti-obesity, anti-constipation, anti-proliferation, anti-mutagenic activity, and decrease of blood glucose and cholesterol level. In this study, the methanol extract and its organic solvent fractions were prepared from dried Dioscorea batatas Decne, and their antimicrobial, antithrombin, and antioxidant activity were evaluated, respectively. The 66.7% of methanol extract was fractioned into water residue, and most of total-polyphenol/total-flavonoids were found in ethylacetate fraction. This ethylacetate fraction at $500\;{\mu}g/disc$ concentration showed strong antibacterial activity against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, except Staphylococcus aureus. Antifungal activity was not observed in methanol extract and its fractions. But, strong antithrombin activity was found in methanol extract. At 4.8 mg/mL concentration, thrombin time was 99.5 sec, which is coincides with 30% activity of aspirin, a commercial available antithrombosis agent. The ethylacetate fraction showed strong DPPH scavenging activity ($IC_{50}$ of $80.5\;{\mu}g/mL$), compared to vitamin C ($IC_{50}$ of $15.2\;{\mu}g/mL$). Also, the ethylacetate fraction showed strong SOD-like activity and reducing power, which are coincide with 43% of vitamin C and 82.7% of butylated hydroxytoluene activity, respectively.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
• /
• v.41 no.spc1
• /
• pp.25-45
• /
• 1996

Soyfoods have potential roles in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, most notably cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. There is evidence that carcinogenesis are supressed by isolated soybean derived products in vivo such as a protease inhibitor, phytic acid, saponins and isoflavones. It is believed that supplementation of human diets with soybean products markedly reduces human cancer mortality rates. Especially, recent papers recognize the potential benefit of soybean isoflavone components for reducing the risk of various cancers. Isoflavones exhibit a multitude of medicinal effects that influence cell growth and regulation, which may have potential value in the prevention and treatment of cancer. In addition to potential biological effects, soybean isoflavones have the important physiological functions such as the induction of Bradyrizobium japonicum nod genes and the responses of soybean tissues to infection by Phytophthora megasperma as well as biochemical activities such as antifungal and antibacterial actions. Genistin, daidzin, glycitin and their aglycone (genistein, daidzein, glycitein) are the principal isoflavones found in soybean. Malonyl and acetyl forms have also been detected but they are thermally unstable and are usually transformed during the processing in glucoside form. Most soy products, with the exception of soy sauce, alcohol-extracted soy protein concentrate, and soy protein isolate, have total isoflavone concentrations similar to those in the whole soybean. Soybean-containing diets inhibit mammary tumorigenesis in animal models of breast cancer, therefore, it is possible that dietary isoflavones are an important factor accounting for the lower incidence and mortality from breast cancer. Of the total soybean seed isoflavones, $80\~90\%$ were located in cotyledons, with the remainder in the hypocotyls. The hypocotyls had a higher concentrations of isoflavones on a weight basis compared with cotyledons. Isoflavone contents were influenced by genetics, crop years, and growth locations. The effect of crop year had a greater impact on the isoflavone contents than that of location. The climate condition might be the attribution factor to variation in isoflavone contents. Also, while the isoflavone content of cotyledons exhibited large variations in response to high temperature during seed development, hypocotyls showed high concentration in isoflavone content. So, it is concluded that one of the factors affecting isoflavone content in soybean seeds is temperature during seed development. High temperature, especially in maturity stage, causes lower isoflavone content in soybean seed. It is also suggested that there may exist a different mechanism to maintain isoflavone contents between cotyledon and seed hypocotyls. In a conclusion, soy foods may be able to have a significant beneficial impact on public health.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.90-98
• /
• 2003

An allium rhizobacterium Serratia plymuthica AL-1 was previously selected as a biocontrol agent of allium white rot. The chitinase from S. plymuthica AL-1 produced in medium containing colloidal chitin was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation (40~70%), affinity adsorption, column chromatography on DEAE-sephadex A-50 and sephadex C-200 gel filtration. The enzyme was purified 10.8-fold with a yield of 7.3% from the starting culture broth. The purified chtinase gave a single band on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, it's molecular weight was estimated to be 55 kDa. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified enzyme were pH 5.5 and $55^{\circ}C$, respectively and it is stable up to $50^{\circ}C$ and maintains around 90% of its activity for 60min. The enzyme were activated by $Ca^{2+}$, $Mn^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ and inhibited by $Cu^{2+}$, SDS, $\rho$-CMB, MIA, respectively. The purified chitinase showed broad spectrum of antifungal activities against plant pathogenic fungi Sclerotium cepivoruin, Alternana alternnta, Colletotrichum glceosporioidrs, Phoma sp., Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Stemphylium solani, Fusarium oxysporium f. sp. niveum but rarely inhibited Phytophthora capsici and Pythium ultimum.. The purified chitinase from S. plymuthica AL-1 caused swelling, lysis, deceleration and degradation of the hyphal tips of S. sczerotiorum causing allium white rot. It suggest that S. prymuthica AL-1 chitinase play an important part in the bifunctional chitinase / lysozyme activity.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.187-191
• /
• 2007

Comparative molecular similarity indice analysis (CoMSIA) models on the fungicidal activities of N-phenyl substituents (X) in N-phenyl-O-phenylthionocarbamate derivatives against rice sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani: RS) and phytophthora blight (Phytophthora capsici: PC) were derived. Also, the characterizations of H-bonds between substrates and ${\beta}-tubulin$ were discussed quantitatively. It was revealed that, from the contour maps of CoMSIA models, the H-bond acceptor field contributed the most highly to fungicidal activity for two fungi in common. It is predicted that the selectivity in the fungicidal activity between two fungi is caused by results from the roles of H-bond donor disfavor functional groups in RS and H-bond acceptor disfavor functional groups in PC when these two groups induced at meta- and para-position on the N-phenyl ring. And also, if the substituents (X) are steric disfavor group, negative charge favor groups are introduced at the metaposition in RS and H-bond acceptor group is introduced at the para-position in PC, the antifungal activity against two fungi will be likely able to be increased.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2009

Essential oils are mixture of volatile, lipophilic compounds originating from plants. Essential oils have potential biological effects, i.e., antibacterial, antifungal, spasmolytic and antiplasmodial activities and insect-repellent property. In this study, five essential oils, namely R, LG, FR, O, and NM, extracted from various aromatic plants were used to test their antimicrobial activity against the oral microorganisms. The effects of essential oils were investigated against eight important bacteria, Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Streptococcus sanguis (S. sanguis), Streptococcus anginosus (S. anginosus), Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (A. actinomycetemcomitans), Streptococcus sobrinus (S. sobrinus), Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis), and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Essential oils, except NM, effectively inhibited the growth of tested oral pathogenic microorganisms dose-dependently. However, the essential oils didn't show a significant inhibitory effect against E. coli and S. epidermidis. Consequently, these results represented that essential oil-mediated anti-microbial activity was prominent against the oral pathogenic bacteria. For example, minimum bactericidal concentration(MBC) of R, LG, FR oil against A. actinomycetemcomitans was very low as 0.078 mg/mL. In addition, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of R, LG, FR, O oil against S. mutans was low as 0.156 mg/mL in vitro.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.374-381
• /
• 2011

Stilbenes are polyphenolic natural products, which have antioxidative and antifungal activities. In some plants, including grapevine, the stilbene compounds, as resveratrol derivatives, exist in very diverse forms. Experiments to identify the individual stilbene compounds were carried out first to quantify them in UV-irradiated grapevine leaves. For this, stilbene glycosides were extracted from grapevine leaves which irradiated intensively with UV light. The glycoside samples were hydrolyzed by ${\beta}$-glucosidase, before analyzed by HPLC-mass spectrometer at each m/z corresponding to the mass of specific stilbenes. As results, in chromatograms, the enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in decrease and increase of the peaks expected for glycosides and aglycones, respectively. The samples were also exposed to sunlight in order to photo-isomerize the stilbene compounds. The light exposure resulted in disappearance and appearance of peaks expected for trans- and cis-isomers of stilbenes, respectively. Such a change of the peaks in chromatograms provided information needed for the inference to peak components. In this way, it was possible to identify 16 kinds of stilbene compounds from grapevine leaves. The identified stilbenes were quantified from grapevine leaves irradiated mildly by UV light. The UV-irradiation increased markedly in the content of stilbene compounds, especially trans-resveratrol by several hundredfold. In addition, piceatannol, which is a mere minor component of stilbenes in control leaves and a more active radical scavenger than resveratrol, was also increased by several tenfold by the treatment. The increase in stilbene contents as influenced by UV irradiation seems to be one of the stress coping responses of grapevine as a hormesis phenomenon.

• Research in Plant Disease
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.81-93
• /
• 2016

Out of plant-associated bacteria, certain plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have been reported to increase plant growth and productivity and to elicit induced resistance against plant pathogens. In this study, our objective was to broaden the range of applications of leaf-colonizing PGPB for foliar parts of road tress and pepper. Total 1,056 isolates of endospore-forming bacteria from tree phylloplanes were collected and evaluated for the enzymatic activities including protease, lipase, and chitinase and antifungal capacities against two fungal pathogens, Colletotrichum graminicola and Botrytis cinerea. Fourteen isolates classified as members of the bacilli group displayed the capacity to colonize pepper leaves after spraying inoculation. Three strains, 5B6, 8D4, and 8G12, and the mixtures were employed to evaluate growth promotion, yield increase and defence responses under field condition. Additionally, foliar application of bacterial preparation was applied to the road tress in Yuseong, Daejeon, South Korea, resulted in increase of chlorophyll contents and leaf thickness, compared with non-treated control. The foliar application of microbial preparation reduced brown shot-hole disease of Prunus serrulata L. and advanced leaf abscission in Ginkgo biloba L. Collectively, our results suggest that leaf-colonizing bacteria provide potential microbial agents to increase the performance of woody plants such as tree and pepper through spray application.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.401-406
• /
• 1992

Antifungal substances against three plant pathogenic fungi, Phytophthora capsici, Phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica and Rhizoctionaia solani were fractionated cultures of Streptomyces sp. A-2 strain isolated in Korean soils. Characterizations of active substances related with antagonistic effects were follows : 1. The excellent media which showed the transfer efficiency of antagonistic substances from Streptomyces sp. A-2 strain G.Y.B and B.H.I. among four that are glucose yeast broth (G.Y.B), $M\ddot{u}eller$, brain heart infusion(B.H.I.) and Czapek media. Active substances which were transfered into ethylacetate or left in residual aqueous phase did not lose antagonistic activity in spite of autoclavation. This indicated that bonds of these compounds were rigid enough to keep activity under such conditions. 2. Antagonistic substances were extracted according to adjustment of pH 3 or pH12 to 5 day-old B.H.I. broth cultures of Streptomyces sp. A-2 strain. Comparative analysis fluorescent bands on HPTLC to antagonsitic spectra against three phytopathogenic fungi indicated that major substances with antagonistic activity were extracted regardless of different pH adjustment to broth cultures. Since UV spectrum of these fractions scanned from 500nm to 200nm was similiar to that of polyene macrolide, major substances related with antagonistic activities were assumed to be polyene derivatives antibiotics.