• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.77-119
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• 2013

The genus Patrinia, belonging to the Valerianaceae family, includes ca. 20 species of herbaceous plants with yellow or white flowers, distributed in Korea, China, Siberia, and Japan. Among them, P. scabiosaefolia (yellow Patrinia), P. saniculaefolia, P. villosa (white Patrinia), and P. rupestris are found in Korea. Several members of this genus have long been used in folk medicine for the treatment of inflammation, wound healing, ascetics, and abdominal pain after childbirth. Thus far, ca. 217 constituents, namely flavonoids, iridoids, triterpenes, saponins, and others have been identified in this genus. Crude extract and isolated compounds have been found to exhibit anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, cytotoxic activities, lending support to the rationale behind several of its traditional uses. The present review compiles information concerning the phytochemistry and biological activities of Patrinia, with particular emphasis on P. villosa, as studied by our research group.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.57-60
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• 2008

Eight compounds, including 2 flavones, luteolin (1) and apigenin (2), 2 flavonols, kaempferol (3) and quercetin (4), and 4 flavonoid glucosides, luteolin-7-O-${\beta}$-D-glucoside (5), apigetrin (6), astragalin (7), and isoquercitrin (8), isolated from the whole herb of Sonchus oleraceus L. were analyzed on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidence. This was the first time to report compounds 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 from the Sonchus oleraceus L. The antioxidant activities of the isolated flavonoids and their glucoside derivatives were evaluated by DPPH free radical-scavenging assay, showing that compounds 1, 3, 4 and 8 exhibited stronger antioxidant activities compared with ${\alpha}$, tocopherol and curcumin. Flavonoids containing more hydroxyl groups exhibited better antioxidant activities. The antioxidant activity of flavonols was superior to their corresponding flavones, and that of aglycone are more potent than their glucoside derivatives.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.427-433
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• 2006

We investigated the effect of propolis on the activity of antioxidant enzymes in rat liver exposed by X-ray irradiation. The dosage of propolis showed the effect of lowering the concentration of superoxide anion in irradiated rat liver, suggesting that propolis has a significant role to remove superoxide anion as an antioxidant and/or by activating the antioxidant enzyme. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione reductase (GR), disturbed by X-ray irradiation, were restored in 30 days to normal status in the group which dosed propolis before X-ray irradiation. Interestingly, catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPOX) activities were highly increased with feeding propolis to rat compared to untreated group, whereas glutathione s-transferase (GST) activity was little affected. Taken together, it suggests that the propolis has a protective role in the rat liver cells against X-ray irradiation by increasing and recovering the activities of antioxidant enzymes.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2001

For defining the possibilities of the commercial mass liquid culture of Cordyceps sinensis, the pharmacological activities of mycelia were analyzed. The mycelium of C. sinensis consists of carbohydrate (5.1%) and fat (1.3%), and contains a low content of protein (0.7%) and ash (0.5%), and 92.4% moisture. The molecular sugar ratio of carbohydrate was composed mainly of glucose, mannose (1.0 : 0.9), in addition a small amount of galactose and arabinose (0.2 : 0.1). The cellular materials of mycelia were fractionated into ethylacetate (EA), MeOH (M) and hot-water extract fraction (HW). HW fraction showed the most potent intestinal immune system modulating activity, anti-coagulant activity, and anti-complementary activity, and M fraction had the inhibition activity of radical generation as effective as genistine. These results reveal that the mycelium of liquid cultured C. sinensis showed pharmacological activities and could be used for commercial purpose.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2012

The antifungal activities of the bee venom against Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum were determined by using modified broth dilution assay. The most common dermatophytes, named T. mentagrophytes and T. rubrum, were known to cause a variety of cutaneous infections in humans and animals. The bee venom exhibited prominent antifungal activities against the two dermatophytes tested in this investigation. Moreover, the antifungal activities of the bee venom were much stronger than that of fluconazole, one of the commercial antifungal drugs used in the treatment and prevention of superficial and systemic fungal infections. The result suggests that bee venom could be developed as a natural antifungal drug.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.518-520
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• 2014

Hybrids of some natural compounds are promising to obtain new leads with good biological activities for drug discovery. Three quercetin aspirinates were synthesized by esterification of the 3-and 7-hydroxyl groups of quercetin with aspirin. Biological activities of these quercetin aspirinates were initially screened and showed better cytotoxic activities against tumor cell lines HL-60 and HepG2 and less scavenging activity against DPPH than the quercetin respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.1225-1232
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• 2018

Phenylethanoids, including 2-phenylethanol, tyrosol, and salidroside are a group of phenolic compounds with a C6-C2 carbon skeleton synthesized by plants. Phenylethanoids display a variety of biological activities, including antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and anti-asthmatic activities. Recently, successful microbial synthesis of phenylethanoids through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches has been reported and could allow phenylethanoid production from alternative microbial sources. Here, we review the recent achievements in the synthesis of phenylethanoids by microorganisms. The work done so far will contribute to the production of diverse phenylethanoids using various microbial systems and facilitate exploration of further diverse biological activities of phenylethanoids.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.223-228
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• 2014

Magnoflorine, an important compound in Aristolochia, was usually used as an anxiolytic chemical. In this study, the magnoflorine was isolated from Aristolochia and the biological activities such as antioxidant, ${\alpha}$-tyrosinase inhibitory, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities were investigated. The magnoflorine showed significant antioxidant activity as a 2,2-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenger, $50{\mu}g/mL$ of the magnoflorine scavenged about 70.8% of all the free radicals. And it was good at ${\alpha}$-tyrosinase inhibiting, $100{\mu}g/mL$ of the magnoflorine inhibited 36.5% of the tyrosinase. High dosage of magnoflorine inhibited the inflammation production nitric oxide (NO), and the magnoflorine protected the murine macrophage cells (RAW 264.7) from LPS-induced apoptosis. The cell viability of human colon cancer calls (HT-29) was around 100% when treated with different dose of magnoflorine, it's suggesting that magnoflorine had no anticancer effect.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.372-376
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• 2012

Militarin was isolated from Cordyceps militaris, a caterpillar-grown traditional medicinal mushroom and reported to possess anticancer activities against several tumor cells. A number of militarin derivatives bearing different numbers of ethylene glycol unit were synthesized and evaluated for their biological activities related with anticancer and antiinflammatory effects. Among militarin derivatives tested, the compounds 2 and 5 exhibited anticancer and antiinflammatory activities.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.159-163
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• 2018

Two new polyketides, chinoketides A and B (1 - 2) with a known compound xylarphthalide A (3), were isolated from the solid medium of the endophytes from the leaves of the relic plant Distylium chinense with the "black-box" co-culture method, and the structures of two new compounds were elucidated by NMR, MS and CD spectra. And the absolute configurations of chinoketides A (1) and B (2) were determined as 2R,3R,8S and 5R,6S by calculating their ECD spectra to compare with the experimental CD spectra. Finally, the antimicrobial activities were evaluated to Erwinia carotovora sub sp. Carotovora (Jones) Bersey et al, and the results showed that compounds 1 - 3 displayed the antimicrobial activities with MIC value at 20.5, 30.4 and $10.2{\mu}g/mL$.