• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2016

The aerial part of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. (Cucurbitaceae), has long been used in traditional Korean and Chinese medicines for the treatment of heatstroke. We isolated and identified three flavones, luteolin-7-O-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside(1), luteolin-4'-O-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside(2), luteolin(3) from its methanolic extract. In the present study, we found that luteolin attenuates the lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced inflammation in BV2 microglial cells. Luteolin significantly inhibited LPS-induced production of pro-inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide(NO) and prostaglandin $E_2(PGE_2)$ in BV2 microglia in a concentration-dependent manner without cytotoxic effect. Luteolin dose-dependently suppressed the protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2). In addition, luteolin also showed significant induction of heme oxygenase(HO)-1. These results suggest that both the aerial part of T. kirilowii and luteolin may be good candidates to regulate LPS-induced inflammatory response.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.918-921
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• 2005

Quantitative analysis of flavonoids in commercial propolis extract products were compared by three colorimetric methods; aluminum chloride method, dinitrophenylhydrazine method and aluminum nitrate method, Aluminum nitrate method in Korea Health Supplement Food Code was proved to be specific only for flavones and flavonols same as aluminum chloride method, while dinitrophenylhydrazine method was specific for flavanones and dihydroflavonols. Therefore, the sum of flavonoid contents determined by 2,4-Dinitrophenylhydrazine method and aluminum nitrate method may represent the real content of total flavonoids. As for the 25 commercial propolis extract products examined, the contents of flavonoid varied from 2.15% to 9.53% except for one product.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2015

This research was conducted to analyze flavonoids in juice and to investigate correlation between 60 germplasms of satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc.) on the basis of the result of flavonoid analysis. Juice of satsuma mandarin contained 6 flavonoids, 2 flavanones such as narirutin and hesperidin, 1 flavone such as rutin and 3 polymethoxylated flavones such as sinensetin, tangeretin and nobiletin. Hesperidin content ranged from 41 to 196 mg/L. Narirutin content ranged from 25 to 230 mg/L. The average of rutin content was 2.2 mg/L but it was not detected in some cultivars. Polymethoxylated flavone which is known as a citrus specific flavonoid, was detected in all germplasms in small quantities. Cluster analysis using R program (Version 3.1.1) was carried out with the results of the flavonoid analysis and harvesting time of satsuma mandarin germplasms. All germplasms were grouped as A, B1 or B2. But all 3 groups contained very early-ripening type, early-ripening type and commonly-ripening type cultivars. This showed there was no correlation between flavonoids in juce and their harvest time.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.633-644
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• 2006

In last couple of decades the use of natural compounds like flavonoids as chemopreventive agents has gained much attention. Our current study focuses on identifying chemopreventive flavonoids and their mechanism of action on human prostate cancer cells. Human prostate cancer cells (PC3), stably transfected with activator protein 1 (AP-1) luciferase reporter gene were treated with four main classes of flavonoids namely flavonols, flavones, flavonones, and isoflavones. The maximum AP-1 luciferase induction of about 3 fold over control was observed with $20\;{\mu}M$ concentrations of quercetin, chrysin and genistein and $50\;{\mu}M$ concentration of kaempferol. At higher concentrations, most of the flavonoids demonstrated inhibition of AP-1 activity. The MTS assay for cell viability at 24 h showed that even at a very high concentration $(500\;{\mu}M)$, cell death was minimal for most of the flavonoids. To determine the role of MAPK pathway in the induction of AP-1 by flavonoids, Western blot of phospho MAPK proteins was performed. Four out of the eight flavonoids namely kaempferol, apigenin, genistein and naringenin were used for the Western Blot analysis. Induction of phospho-JNK and phospho-ERK activity was observed after two hour incubation of PC3-AP1 cells with flavonoids. However no induction of phospho-p38 activity was observed. Furthermore, pretreating the cells with specific inhibitors of JNK reduced the AP-1 luciferase activity that was induced by genistein while pretreatment with MEK inhibitor reduced the AP-1 luciferase activity induced by kaempferol. The pharmacological inhibitors did not affect the AP-1 luciferase activity induced by apigenin and naringenin. These results suggest the possible involvement of JNK pathway in genistein induced AP-1 activity while the ERK pathway seems to play an important role in kaempferol induced AP-1 activity.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2012

In this study, the optimum conditions of fermentation were determined by isolating the microorganisms with the ability to bioconvert the Citrus peel flavonoid, and the effect of the fermented Citrus peel extract which was bioconverted on the oxidative damage of HIT-T15 cell was investigated. The Aureobasidium pullulans Y-12 was isolated and identified with the strains having bioconversion activity. The fermentation conditions for bioconversion activity were confirmed to be optimal when culturing for three days at $25^{\circ}C$, 150 rpm in a culture medium containing 5% Citrus peel power and 0.8% casitone. As a result of bioconversion, 32.8 mg/g and 21.5 mg/g of naringenin and hesperetin, which were aglycone flavones, were produced respectively. Also in the flavonoid content, it was confirmed that FCP produced 154.8 mg/g while CP produced 33.7 mg/g, thus producing more by approximately 4.6 times. As a result of treating FCP and CP after inducing the oxidative damage for HIT-T15 cell by treating the deoxy-D-ribose with $IC_{50}$ (38 mM) concentration, the surviving rate was recovered to 90% for FCP treatments in the 0.01 mg/mL concentration and for CP treatments in the 0.025 mg/mL concentration. Also in the insulin secretion rate, FCP treatments increased by 206% and CP treatments by 132% when treated in the 0.1 mg/mL concentration. As the bioconverted FCP can inhibit the oxidative damage of HIT-T15 cell in the low concentration, it was considered its usability as the functional material for prevention of the type 2 diabetes.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.391-401
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to estimate the dietary flavonoid intakes of Korean adults according to socioeconomic status. Methods: Using data from the 2007~2012 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a total of 31,112 subjects aged over 19 years were included in this study. We estimated individuals' daily intakes of total flavonoids and seven flavonoid subclasses, including flavonols, flavones, flavanones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidin, and isoflavones,by linking food consumption data with the flavonoids database for commonly consumed Korean foods. We compared intakes of flavonoids according to the levels of household income and education. Results: Average dietary flavonoid intakes of the study subjects were 321.8 mg/d in men and 308.3 mg/d in women. Daily flavonoid intakes were positively associated with household income level (p < 0.0001) and education level (p < 0.0001). The subjects in the highest household income and highest education level group (OR 0.37, 95% CI 0.30~0.45, p < 0.0001 in men, OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.41~0.60, p < 0.0001 in women) had a lower likelihood of having low total flavonoid intake (less than 25 percentile) compared to the lowest household income and lowest education level group. The food group that contributed to total flavonoid intake with the biggest difference between the lowest and highest groups for both household income level and education level was beverages. Conclusion: This study shows that socioeconomic status was positively associated with flavonoid intake in a representative Korean population. Further research is needed to analyze the association of flavonoid intake with health outcomes according to socioeconomic status such as household income and education level.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.265-275
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• 2002

Flavonoid biosynthesis is one of the most extensively studied areas in the secondary metabolism. Due to the study of flavonoid metabolism in diverse plant system, the pathways become the best characterized secondary metabolites and can be excellent targets for metabolic engineering. These flavonoid-derived secondary metabolites have been considerably divergent functional roles: floral pigment, anticancer, antiviral, antitoxin, and hepatoprotective. Three species have been significant for elucidating the flavonoid metabolism and isolating the genes controlling the flavonoid genes: maize (Zea mays), snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) and petunia (Prtunia hybrida). Recently, many genes involved in biosynthesis of flavonoid have been isolated and characterized using mutation and recombinant DNA technologies including transposon tagging and T-DNA tagging which are novel approaches for the discovery of uncharacterized genes. Metabolic engineering of flavonoid biosynthesis was approached by sense or antisense manipulation of the genes related with flavonoid pathway, or by modified expression of regulatory genes. So, the use of a variety of experimental tools and metabolic engineering facilitated the characterization of the flavonoid metabolism. Here we review recent progresses in flavonoid metabolism: confirmation of genes, metabolic engineering, and applications in the industrial use.