• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.89-99
• /
• 2005

The golf courses more than about 200 are operating in Korea. From the golf courses, a great amount of turfgrass clippings tend to increase, steadily. Materials used in the experiment were Creeping Bentgrass(CB), Kentucky Bluegrass(KB), Korean Lawngrass(KL), rice bran and composted chicken drop. Treatments are CB, KB, and KL. The temperature during the composting of all treatments increased rapidly and reached at the highest temperature($57.9^{\circ}C$, $67.8^{\circ}C$, $74.3^{\circ}C$) within 20 days, and then stabilized to the range of $35.2{\sim}41.6^{\circ}C$ at the 30th day. The pH values of all treatments decreased on the first day. However, they were increased rapidly after three days and decreased again on 10~20 days. The pH values of all treatments at the final day were stabilized to the low alkali levels. The contents of total carbon during the period of composting tend to decrease and total nitrogen was increased for factor of reduction of volume. CEC value of all treatments during the period of composting tends to increase. The round paper chromatogram of extracted solution of KL sample was the sharpest and clearest among all treatments. The G.I. values of CB, KB, and KL in 30th day of composting were about 95.1, 77.7, and 98.7 in germination test using chinese cabbage, respectively. Conclusively, all turfgrass clippings used in this experiment were composted well, suitable as composting products standardized by KSC. The maturity of the final compost samples is best in KL, followed by CB and KB treatments. The turfgrass compost can contribute to the plant cultivation for environment-friendly farm, and the results of this study can become the basic data of turfgrass clippings compost. Further research on the mixing ratio of each material is required to produce compost of good quality.

• Food Science and Preservation
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.335-344
• /
• 2015

The objective of this study was to determine the rheological characteristics and sensory evaluation of yanggaeng by using the functional properties of Momordica charantia. Dried Momordica charantia was roasted at $180^{\circ}C$ to remove its bitter taste. The results of the study were as follows : The phenolic compound of Momordica charantia was $6.30{\pm}0.17mg/g$ in water extracts, which was the highest extractive rate. The anti-oxidant activity of non-roasted and roasted samples was determined in various phenolic concentrations at $50{\sim}200{\mu}g/mL$. The DPPH activities of non-roasted and roasted Momordica charantia water and ethanol extracts were 74.06~92.71% and 86.06~94.07%, respectively. The ABTS were 36.26~98.03% and 67.02~99.60% in water and ethanol extracts, respectively. The anti-oxidant protection factor of water and ethanol extracts were 2.19~2.25 PF and 2.20~2.36 PF respectively, and TBARS were 13.81~40.97% and 23.32~82.47%, respectively. The anti-oxidant activity of ethanol extracts was higher than that of water extracts at low phenolics concentration of $50{\mu}g/mL$, while the roasted sample was higher than the sample that was not roasted. The ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition activity of non-roasted Momordica charantia ethanol extracts was higher than that of water extracts, showing that there were increasing pattern depending on the increases in the phenolics concentration of Momordica charantia. The texture, such as hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and color changed in proportion to the concentration of Momordica charantia powder. Moreover sensory characteristics, such as color, flavor, taste, texture and overall acceptability of the non-roasted sample changed in proportion to the concentration of Momordica charantia powder. However, in the roasted sample, the sensory characteristics was improved at a lower concentration (below 1%). Thus, when the yanggang was prepared by Momordica charantia powder as a minor ingredient, it would be desirable to add it after roasting, in consideration of its functional and sensory properties, and at appropriate concentration on below 1%.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.456-463
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 3 types of medicinal herbs (Glycyrrhizae radix, Astragali radix and Dioscorea rhizoma) extracts on estrogen-like activities, proliferation and differentiation in osteoblast. Human breast cancer cell line MCF7 was transfected using an estrogen responsive luciferase reporter plasmid for measure the estrogen-like activity. Estrogen-like activities of extracts were in the range of 1.11~5.73 fold to that of negative control. The extract of G. radix showed the strongest estrogen-like activities. The estrogen-like activities of 50 and $500{\mu}g/ml$ extracts of G. radix were similar to that of $10^{-8}$ and $10^{-7}$ M standard solution ($17{\beta}-estradiol$), respectively. G. radix extract showed no cytotoxicity against osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells at $1{\sim}1,000{\mu}g/ml$. The extract of A. radix showed no significant proliferation of osteoblast. However, the extract of G. radix and D. rhizome showed maximum 148% and 133% proliferation effects. The extract of G. radix also increased alkaline phosphatase activity and the maximum was 122% at $100{\mu}g/ml$ compared to that of control. The nodule formation by the method of the Alizarin red S staining increased compared to control. These results suggest that G. radix is able to perform the bone formation and prevent osteoporosis.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.336-342
• /
• 2012

Inorganic materials were commonly used as container media in domestic plant factories. Objective of this research was to secure the information in soil physical and chemical properties of inorganic materials such as vermiculites and perlites. To achieve this, 12 gold and silver vermiculites from China, Zimbabwe, and South Africa and 5 perlites from China were collected based on the marketing grades (MG) in particle sizes and analyzed for determination of their characteristics. The percentage of particles larger than $710{\mu}m$, in China perlite MG 3~5 mm, China silver vermiculites MG > 8 mm and MG 3~8 mm were 99.9%, 99.8%, and 99.7%, respectively, which were much higher than 28.4% in China gold vermiculite MG 0.3~1.0 mm, 14.0% in perlite MG < 1.0 mm, and 12.6% of Zimbabwe silver vermiculite MG < 1.0 mm. The container capacities of perlite MG < 1.0 mm and South Africa silver vermiculite MG 0.25~1.0 mm were 72.0% and 71.1%, respectively. The air space in China silver vermiculite MG 3~8 mm was 49.3% which was higher than other materials tested. However, the China gold and silver vermiculites MG 0.3~1 mm had 3.5% and 2.4% in air space indicating that possible problems could occur in soil aeration when they are used for container media. The percentage of easily available and buffering water of China gold vermiculite MG 0.3~1 mm and perlite MG < 1.0 mm were the highest among test materials. The ranges of pH and electrical conductivity were 6.36 to 10.7 and 0.032 to $0.393dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in vermiculites and 7.78 to 8.62 and 0.030 to $0.041dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ in perlite, respectively. The cation exchange capacity of China silver vermiculite MG 0.3~1 mm were $14.7cmol{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ that was 10 times as high as $0.34cmol{\cdot}kg^{-1}$ in perlite MG 1~2.5 mm. The vermiculites had the higher contents of exchangeable cations such as Ca, K, and Na, than those of perlites.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.322-326
• /
• 2012

Recently, researches related to plant factory system has been activated and production of Ssam-vegetables using artificial lighting has been increasing. In South Korea, Ssam-vegetables are very popular and the consumption is increasing every year. Because leaf vegetables cultivated under hydroponic systems are more preferable rather than those cultivated by soil culture in Korea, the plant factory system would be more effective in production of Ssam-vegetables. Therefore, this study was carried out in order to analyze the yield and vitamin C contents in red mustard (Brassica juncea L.) and pak-choi (Brassica campestris var. chinensis), which are used a lot for the Ssam-vegetables in South Korea, as influenced by different concentrations of the nutrient solution in a plant factory system. As a results, there was no significant differences in the plant height among the treatment of EC in the nutrient solution, but for red mustard plants, the number of leaves tended to decrease in the treatment with higher EC. Leaf area of pak-choi plants was significantly increased in the higher EC, while the fresh weight had a tendency to increase along with increasing EC in the nutrient solution for both crops. The photosynthetic rates did not show a distinct tendency by EC levels for red mustard plants, but for pak-choi plants, it tended to be higher at the high EC. The contents of ascorbic acid in leaves were higher with decreasing EC concentration in the nutrient solution for red mustard plants, while the content was the highest at EC $2.0dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$ for pak-choi plants. In summary, considering the marketable yields and vitamin C at different nutrient concentrations in a plant factory, the optimal concentration for red mustard and pak-choi plants was thought to be EC $2.0{\sim}2.5dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$.

• Journal of agriculture & life science
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.119-127
• /
• 2012

For the promotion of the evaporative cooling efficiency of hot air in greenhouse in summer, a fog sprayer consisted of a high volume spraying two-fluid nozzle with turbo fan and a blowing fan was set up at 2.2 m height from bottom of small glass greenhouse and tested to estimate the possibility of the greenhouse cooling. The mean droplet size and the volume sprayed by one of fog sprayer were $29{\mu}m$ and $160m{\ell}/min$. All the droplets sprayed and blown by the fog sprayer were evaporated within 2 m radius. The result from the cooling test that two sprayers set up in glass greenhouse of plane area $228m^2$ was represented lower cooling effect that the temperature and relative humidity of inside air of greenhouse were $28.8^{\circ}C$ and 87.5% when those of outside air of greenhouse were $30.2^{\circ}C$ and 81.2%. Through investigation of literatures and results of the cooling test, it was estimated that the water spraying rate of evaporative cooling of single span greenhouse with 50% light curtain and with air change rate of 1 volume/min was $10m{\ell}/min/m^2$ so that the inside air temperature may cool down $2{\sim}3^{\circ}C$ on the basis of $35^{\circ}C$ atmospheric temperature in summer of south korean area.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.286-292
• /
• 2019

This study aimed to investigate the suitable of layer on growth of six baby leaf vegetables using existing facilities and equipment in rice seedling nursery. Three kinds of Lactuca(lettuce 'Jinppallola' and 'Romain white', and indian lettuce), two of Brassica(tatsoi and red tatsoi) and amaranth were used as the materials. After sowing, the rice seedling tray was placed in multi bench system($L120{\times}W60{\times}H195cm$, 10th floor), which were low(1st) layer above 15cm, middle(4th) layer above 115cm and high(7th) layer above 175cm apart from ground. Irrigation was sprayed 2~3 times a day using a automatic irrigation system. The growth characteristics and leaf color were investigated when leaf vegetables were reached the optimum size(within 10cm of plant height). During the culture periods(29th Jun.~31th Jul. 2017), daytime average temperature was $27.4{\sim}28.3^{\circ}C$ regardless of layers but solar irradiance was higher in the high-layer than low and middle-layer of 37% and 22%, respectively. The leaf length, leaf width and number of leaves in middle and high-layer have a tendency to increase but, fresh weight was different according to the layer. When the correlation between accumulation radiation and growth was analyzed, all of growth factor of Amaranth showed a high correlation and other cultivars showed correlation with each growth factors. As a result, It is suitable that amaranth and red tatsoi for high-layer, Indian lettuce and tatsoi for middle and high-layer and 'Romain white' for middle-layer. The growth of red lettuce 'Jinppallola' was good at low layer, but leaf color expression was poor. So the high layer is suitable for 'Jinppallola'.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.46-54
• /
• 2019

Experiments of local cooling and heating on crown and root zone of forcing cultivation of strawberry 'Seolhyang' using heat pump and root pruning before planting were conducted. During the daytime, the crown surface temperature of the crown local cooling treatment was maintained at $18{\sim}22^{\circ}C$. This is suitable for flower differentiation, while those of control and root zone local cooling treatment were above $30^{\circ}C$. Budding rate of first flower clusters and initial yields were in the order of crown local cooling, root zone local cooling and control in root pruning plantlet and non pruning plantlet, except for purchase plantlet. Those of root pruning plantlet were higher than those of non pruning plantlet. These trends were evident in the yield of the first flower cluster until February 14, 2018, and the effect of local cooling and root pruning decreased from March 9, 2018. The budding rates of the second flower cluster according to the local cooling and root pruning treatments were not noticeable compared to first flower cluster but showed the same tendency as that of first flower cluster. In the heating experiment, root zone local heating(root zone $20^{\circ}C$+inside greenhouse $5^{\circ}C$) and crown local heating(crown $20^{\circ}C$+inside greenhouse $5^{\circ}C$) saved 59% and 65% of heating fuel, respectively, compared to control(inside greenhouse $9^{\circ}C$). Considering the electric power consumption according to the heat pump operation, the heating costs were reduced by 55% and 61%, respectively.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.322-327
• /
• 2019

This study was conducted to improve the performance of automatic grafting robot using image recognition technique. The stem diameters of tomatoes and cucumber at the time of grafting were $2.5{\pm}0.3mm$ and $2.2{\pm}0.2mm$ for scions and $3.1{\pm}0.7mm$ and $3.6{\pm}0.3mm$ for rootstocks, respectively. The grafting failure was occurred when the different height between scions and rootstocks were over 4 mm and below 2 mm due to the small contact area of both cutting surface. Therefore, it was found that the height difference at the cutting surface of 3 mm is appropriate. This study also found that grafting failure was occurred when the stem diameters of both scions and rootstocks were thin. Therefore, it was suggested to use at least one stem with thicker than the average stem diameter. Field survey on the cutting angle of stems by hand were ranged from 13 to 55 degree for scions and 15 to 67 degree for rootstocks, respectively, which indicates that this could cause the grafting failure problem. However, the automatic grafting robot developed in this study rotates the seedlings 90 degree and then the stems are cut using a cutting blade. The control part of robot use all images taken from grafting process to determine the distance between a center of both ends of stem and a gripper center and then control the rotation angle of a gripper. Overall, this study found that The performance of automatic grafting robot using image recognition technique was superior with the grafting success rates of cucumber and tomato as $96{\pm}3.2%$ and $95{\pm}4%$, respectively.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.342-351
• /
• 2019

The optimum N concentrations incorporated as pre-planting nutrient charge fertilizer were determined for seedling raising using cylindrical paper pots. A root medium was formulated by blending of peat moss (particles smaller than 2.84 mm were 80-90%) and perlite (1 to 3 mm) with the ratio of 7:3 (v/v). The treatment N concentrations incorporated during the root medium formulation were adjusted to 0, 150, 250, 500, and $750mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ and the concentrations of essential nutrients except N were equal in all treatments. After making of paper pots and putting into the 40-cell tray, the seeds of Chinese cabbage ('Chunmyeong Bom Baechu') and pak-choi ('Hanog cheonggyeongchae') were sown. During the raising of seedlings, weekly analysis of medium pH, EC and concentrations of inorganic elements were conducted. After 21 and 20 days after seed sowing of Chinese cabbage and pak-choi, the growth of the above-ground parts were measured and contents of inorganic elements in the plant tissues were analyzed. During the growing period, pH of the root media rose gradually and the EC decreased rapidly at week 3. The pH of root media at harvest was in the range of 5.3 to 5.9 in Chinese cabbage and 4.93 to 5.39 in pak-choi. Growth of the aboveground parts in terms of fresh and dry weight in both the plants were the highest in the $250mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ N treatment and the lowest in the control treatment. The elevation of pre-planting N concentrations in root medium resulted in the increase of tissue N content and decrease of P, Ca, and Mg contents. The regression equation derived from the influence of varied pre-planting N concentrations on dry weight of above-ground tissue were $y=-0.0036x^2+0.0021x+0.0635$ ($R^2=0.9826$) in Chinese cabbage and $y=-0.16x^2+0.0009x+0.032$ ($R^2=0.991$) in pak-choi. When the low critical concentration of pre-plant N is taken at the point where dry weight of above-ground tissue is 10% less than maximum (0.40 g in Chinese cabbage and 0.16 g in pak-choi), those point are 0.36 g and 0.144 g per plant in Chinese cabbage and pak-choi, respectively. The lower critical N concentrations of root media calculated from the regression equations are $196mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ for Chinese cabbage and $187mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ for pak-choi. These results indicate that optimum pre-plant N concentrations for seedling raising using paper pots are in the range of 196 to $250mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ for Chinese cabbage and 187 to $250mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ for pak-choi.