• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.327-336
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• 2008

Many herbal extracts have been reported to have a preventive or therapeutic effect of on diabetes mellitus. Momordica Charantia commonly known as bitter melon or karela has been reported to be a medicinal plant for treating various diseases including cancers and diabetes. The objectives of this study were to investigate anti-diabetic effects of bitter melon (BM) as determined by blood glucose levels, glucose tolerance test (GTT), insulin tolerance test (ITT), insulin and HbA1C activities in serum, serum biochemical and lipid levels, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and AMPK-${\alpha}2$ expression of skeletal muscle in male C57BL/6J db/db mice. There were four experimental groups including vehicle control, BM 10 mg/kg, BM 50 mg/kg, and BM 250 mg/kg. BM at doses of 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg was orally administered to the diabetic mice everyday for 8 weeks. The treatments of BM 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg significantly decreased the blood glucose level in the diabetic mice compared with vehicle control (p < 0.05). The treatments of BM 10 and 50 mg/kg significantly decreased the GTT, ITT and HbA1c levels in the diabetic mice compared with vehicle control (p < 0.05). All BM groups significantly decreased GOT, GPT, BUN, LDL and glucose levels in the diabetic mice compared with the vehicle control mice (p < 0.05). The livers of mice treated with the BM 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg showed a remarkable decrease in the number of lipid droplets compared with the vehicle control. The pancreas of mice treated with the BM 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg showed a remarkable increase in insulin concentration of ${\beta}$-cells compared with the vehicle control. In addition, the treatments of BM 10, 50, and 250 mg/kg actually increased the expression of AMPK-${\alpha}2$ compared with vehicle control. These results suggest that BM has a respectable anti-diabetic effect resulting from inhibition of blood glucose level and lipid level in serum and that consumption of BM may give a benefit for controlling diabetes mellitus in humans.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-128
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• 2015

In this study, the ${\beta}$-glucosidase activity and total phenolic and isoflavone contents and antioxidant activities during Cheonggukjang fermentation with bitter melon powder (BMP) were investigated and evaluation of the same was performed. The level of ${\beta}$-glucosidase activity was increased at 48 hr and decreased after 72 hr, and the total phenolic and isoflavone-malonylglycoside and aglycone contents increased, while the antioxidant activities increased, but the total isoflavone and isoflavone-glycoside contents decreased during the Cheonggukjang fermentation. In particular, the soybean with 5% BMP fermented at $37^{\circ}C$ for 72 hr displayed the highest antioxidant activities, among all the samples. The highest levels of total phenolic and daidzein contents and DPPH radical scavenging activity, ABTS radical scavenging activity and FRAP assay results after 72 hr fermentation in Cheonggukjang with 5% BMP were found to be 13.5 mg/g, $390.57{\mu}g/g$, 90.74%, 99.79%, and 1.705 (OD593 nm) respectively. In addition, the more BMP was added to the Cheoggukjang, the more the off-odor of the Cheonggukjang decreased. These results suggest that BMP can be used to come up with a new type of Cheonggukjang with improved palatability and antioxidant activity.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.530-538
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• 2020

The Gustatory system enables animals to detect toxic bitter chemicals, which is critical for insects to survive food induced toxicity. Cucurbitacin is widely present in plants such as cucumber and gourds that acts as an anti-herbivore chemical and an insecticide. Cucurbitacin has a harmful effect on insect larvae as well. Although various beneficial effects of cucurbitacin such as alleviating hyperglycemia have also been documented, it is not clear what kinds of molecular sensors are required to detect cucurbitacin in nature. Cucurbitacin B, a major bitter component of bitter melon, was applied to induce action potentials from sensilla of a mouth part of the fly, labellum. Here we identify that only Gr33a is required for activating bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons by cucurbitacin B among available 26 Grs, 23 Irs, 11 Trp mutants, and 26 Gr-RNAi lines. We further investigated the difference between control and Gr33a mutant by analyzing binary food choice assay. We also measured toxic effect of Cucurbitacin B over 0.01 mM range. Our findings uncover the molecular sensor of cucurbitacin B in Drosophila melanogaster. We propose that the discarded shell of Cucurbitaceae can be developed to make a new insecticide.

• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.10a
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• pp.384-385
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• 2010

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.466-473
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• 2016

This study was performed to investigate the reduction in bitter taste and quality characteristics by pretreatments (brining; 1, 5% and blanching; 1, 3 min) in pickled bitter melon, respectively. We prepared picked bitter melon samples at 1%-1 min, 1%-3 min, 5%-1 min, 5%-3 min. Total polyphenol and total flavonoid contents were found to be the highest in 5%-1 min at $14.23{\pm}0.40mg\;CE/g$ (dry) and $4.46{\pm}0.10mg\;RE/g$ (dry), respectively. L-ascorbic acid level was the highest in control samples. Arginine and glutamic acid were increased by brining and blanching. ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging activity were found to be the highest at $43.60{\pm}0.40$ and $44.88{\pm}0.20%$ at 5%-1 min, respectively. ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activity was the highest at 5%-1 min. The a value was statistically different, whereas L and b values were similar among different pretreatments. Hardness in pretreated samples was decreased as compared to that in the control. Among sensory evaluations, 'color' did not indicate any statistical difference, while 'texture', 'bitterness preference' and 'overall preference' increased with pretreatments, and 'bitter intensity' decreased.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.215-221
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• 2017

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia, MC) has been used in traditional Korean medicine in treating diabetes. In addition, some reports were emerged, showing the antifertility activities of MC in mammals. We investigated the effects of ethanolic MC extract on the reproductive activity of golden hamsters whose spermatogenetic capacity is controlled by their photoperiods. The animals were divided into 4 groups: long photoperiod (LP) control, short photoperiod (SP) control, and LP animals treated with MC. The animals were orally ingested with low (0.03 g/kg) or high (0.15 g/kg) concentrations of the ethanolic extracts for 8 weeks on the daily basis. The control animals received the vehicle. The animals were then mated with age-matched females, experienced pregnancy. As results, the LP control animals showed active large testes but SP control animals displayed remarkably reduced testes. The animals treated with both concentrations of MC extracts demonstrated large testes, indicating fertile activity as animals in LP. LP control animals had litters as expected, but SP controls had no litters at all. MC extract showed the same results as LP animals in generating offsprings. These results suggest that the MC extract does not change the photoperiodic influence on reproductive activity of male golden hamsters.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.430-436
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• 2018

This study aimed to analyze charantin and lutein from fresh bitter melon (FBM) for their antioxidant and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activities. We subsequently compared our results with charantin and lutein content of pickled bitter melon (PBM11, PBM13, PBM51, and PBM53), obtained by brining (1 and 5% salt) and blanching (1 and 3 min). Charantin, lutein, $\text\tiny{L}$-ascorbic acid, and total polyphenolic content in FBM were $777.92{\pm}27.59$, $16.87{\pm}2.07$, $94.78{\pm}0.61$, and $22.07{\pm}0.74mg$ catechin equivalents/g on dry basis, respectively. Antioxidant activity of 5 mg/L FBM extract was $31.76{\pm}0.42%$ in ABTS assay and $56.19{\pm}2.39%$ in DPPH assay; ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 0.5 mg/L FBM extract was $55.60{\pm}1.34%$. Charantin and lutein content of all PBM samples were higher than control without brining and blanching treatments, those in PBM53 being $375.63{\pm}9.03$ and $4.07{\pm}0.40mg/100g$, respectively. These showed that brining and blanching in pickling process were very effective in retaining charantin and lutein in bitter melon.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.134-144
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• 2017

This study evaluated the changes of physiochemical properties, phytochemical compounds (isoflavones and phenolic acids), and biological activity during the fermentation of Doenjang without and with bitter melon powder (BMP). The pH decreased from 6.41-5.83 to 5.81-5.24, during the fermentation of Doenjang, while the acidity increased from 0.42-0.65% to 1.28-1.48%. The viable cell numbers of Bacillus and Yeast, salinity, and total amino acid contents increased at the end fermentation (60 day). Also, the fermented Doenjang (FD) with 10% BMP showed the highest ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acid (GABA, 129.87 mg/100 g) contents, among all the Doenjang samples. The FD exhibited significantly higher inhibitory activities than unfermented Doenjang (UFD) on radicals and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase. The phytochemical compounds including isoflavone-aglycones and phenolic acids increased, whereas isoflavoneglycosides decreased in the BM following fermentative processing. Moreover, the total phenolic, isoflavone-aglycone, and phenolic acid contents were markedly increased, leading to a general increase in antioxidant and ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibition activities after fermentation. These results suggest that BMP may be used to prepare a new type of fermented Doenjang with improved antioxidant and antidiabetic activities.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2007

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.475-475
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• 2017