• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2005

To investigate whether there are estrogenic and anti-estrogenic activities in various medicinal herbs and discover prominent chemo-preventive agents, we screened and compared the ethanol extracts of 9 plants through the recombinant yeast assay and MCF-7 human breast cancer cell assay, In recombinant yeast assay, seven medicinal herbs showed estrogenicity, and four extracts showed androgenecity. In MCF-7 proliferation assay, the growth of MCF-7 cells was inhibited by eight extracts before and even after co-treatment with bisphenol A. It is interesting that the extracts of Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Cassia tora, Syringa velutina, Zingiber officinale, Malva verticillata, and Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer exhibited inhibitory effects as phytoestrogens in estrogen-responsive human breast cancer cells. This study suggests that some Korean medicinal herbs might be considered as phytoestrogens and be useful to further analyze those plants which contain the estrogenic effect in order to identify the active principles.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.764-770
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• 1999

Antimicrobial activities were assayed through the hot-water extracts from 41 species of medicinal plants against Helicobacter pylori which is known as the ulcerogenic phathogen. Opuntia ficus-indica, Houttuynia cordata, Sinomenium acutum, and Coptis japonica showed the MIC at the concentrations less than 100 ppm, Pulsatilla koreana, Forsythia koreana, Rheum undulatum, and Perilla frutescens less than 200 ppm, Belamcanda chinensis, Arctium lappa, Cassia tora, Citrus tachibana, Siegesbeckia orientalis, and Caesalpinia sappan less than 300 ppm by the 2-fold dilution method. In disc method only three of them were confirmed to have antimicrobial activities which were increased in the order Perilla frutescens, Coptis japonica, Caesalpinia sappan. Three extracts were partitioned with chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol in sequence and examined for the activity to inhibit H. pylori. The major ativities were observed in ethyl acetate fraction of Caesalpinia sappan, butanol fraction of Perilla frutescens, butanol and chloroform fraction of Coptis japonica. The partitioned fractions were found to have increased antimicrobial activities in all extracts. The experiments in which the extracts were added into urea R broth containing the crude urease derived from H. pylori resulted in the increase of pH and optical density at 560 nm to 8.15 and 1.7 respectively. Urease activity of H. pylori was inhibited over 80% by Caesalpinia sappan, Perilla frutescens, and Coptis japonica, of which Caesalpinia sappan suppressed up to 95%.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.246-251
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• 2003

Angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) belongs to the class of zinc protease and plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure. In this experiment, we investigated the inhibitory activities of ninety four plant extracts on ACE. The extracts were prepared by water and refluxing with 70% and 100% methanol. Among the extracts, two plant extracts such as Cassia tora, Persicaria cochinchinensis Kitagawa showed more than 60% inhibitory activities, and Foeniculum vulgare Gaertner, Scutellaria baicalensis Georgl, Caragana sinica (Buchoz) Rehder, Inula britannica var. chinensis showed $45.2{\sim}49.7%$ inhibitory activities. Twenty eight plant extracts such as Hemerocallis fulva L, Camptotheca acuminata Decne, Inula britannica var. chinensis, Xanthium strumarium, Polygonatum odoratum, Phellodendron amurense Rupr, Coix lachryma-jobi var. mayuen, Prunus ansu, Hibiscus mutabilis L, Thchosanthes kirilowii, Helianthus annuus, Juglans sinensis showed $30.3{\sim}39.7%$ Inhibitory activities. These results suggest that plant extracts which contain high ACE inhibitory activities may be useful as anti-hypertension agents and to the treatment of hypertension.