• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.153-156
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• 1991

Three humic acids, two from uranium bearing coal shale and one from the neighbouring limey shale region, are extracted from soils by dissolution in 0.1 M NaOH followed by acid precipitation. After purification cycles, they are characterized for their elemental composition, contents of inorganic impurities, molecular size distribution and proton exchange capacities. The results are compared with the data of reference and aquatic humic acids characterized under the project MIRAGE Ⅱ at TUM and also with other literature data. The proton exchange capacity determined by direct titration, is found to be 3.60 and 2.01 meq/g for coal shale and limey shale humic acids, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.73-82
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• 2003

Various forest humic substances were collected at different climate regions with different forest types, and adsorption of heavy metals such as Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) were characteristically conducted to obtain optimal adsorption conditions and to evaluate the removal efficiency of heavy metals by each forest humic substance. The adsorption isotherms for Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Cr(III) conformed to Langmuir's equation. In the stirred reactor, the removal efficiencies of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) by forest humic substances were more than 90% but that of Cr(III) was less than 60%. The adsorption capacities of heavy metals in the stirred reactor were considerably varied depending on the type of forest humic substances. Among humic substances, the one from deciduous forest at subtropical region showed the highest removal efficiency for Cu(II). There was no significant difference in removal efficiency by each heavy metal depending on reaction temperature ranged from 20 to 50oC except for Cr(III), and the adsorptions of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) were occurred rapidly in the incipient stage within 10 min, while Cr(III) needed more reaction time to be adsorbed. The stirred and packed bed column reactors showed similar adsorption characteristics of heavy metals by humic substances, but the removal efficiency was considerably higher in the packed bed column reactor than in the stirred reactor. Therefore, in actual operation process, a continuous packed bed column reactor was more economical.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.301-306
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• 1988

Contents and distribution of amino acids in the hydrolysates of humic acids extracted from straw of rice and barley at three different dates during decomposition were examined. The results obtained from this study may be summed up as the following: 1. There are differences between the humic acid hydrolysates from rice straw and barley straw in regards of composition of humic acids and distribution of amino acids. 2. Neutral amino acids as a group occupy the largest share, followed by acidic amino acids and basic amino acids. 3. The total amount of amino acids per gram of humic acid is greater in straw of rice than in straw of barley. 4. With the humification progressing the content of lysine increases, but the content of histidine decreases. In general glycine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine and leucine constitute the 5 predominant amino acids in all hydrolysates. 5. Arginine is not detected at all in any of the hydrolysates of humic acids obtained from humified materials. 6. The presence of phenylalanine and tyrosine is an evidence for the aromatic characteristics of humic acids.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1623-1623
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• 2001

Composting is a biological method used to transform the organic waste into stable, humified organic amendments. Humification is indicated as the key factor in improving the quality of compost, because of the importance of humic substances to soil ecology, fertility and structure, and their beneficial effects on plant growth The compost constituents vary widely, however, the degree of maturity is very important factor in compost quality. So this experiment carried out to determine the rapid estimation of the quality in cattle, pig, chicken and waste composts using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy(NIRS). Near infrared reflectance spectra of composts was obtained by Infra Alyzer 500 scanning spectrophotometer at 2-nm intervals from 1100 to 2500nm. Multiple linear regression(MLR) or partial least square regression (PLSR) was used to evaluate a NIRS method for the rapid and nondestructive determination of humic acid contents in composts. The results summarized that NIR spectroscopy can be used as a routine testing method to determine quantitatively the humic acid content in the compost samples ondestructively. Especially, we supposed that absorbance around 2300nm is related to humic acid as a factor of compost maturity. However the NIR absorption approach is empirical, it actually requires many combinations of samples and data manipulations to obtain optimal prediction.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1266-1270
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• 2004

Humic substances include several biological active and inactive compounds that are commonly used for improving soil fertility. Use of humic substances in swine diets is a novel concept. Humic substances contain 8,700 mg/kg of iron but its bioavailability is unknown. This study was conducted to test the bioavailability of iron in humic substances for nursery pigs. One hundred twenty five pigs (Newsham, Colorado Springs, CO) were not given supplemental iron while nursing for 21 d. Pigs were weaned on d 21 and allotted to one of five treatments (four control treatments with different levels of supplemented iron; 0, 30, 70 and 88 mg/kg from ${FeSO}_4$ and one treatment with 70 mg/kg iron from humic substances). Pigs were fed diets for 5 wk ad libitum and water was accessible freely. Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly. Blood samples were taken from pigs on d 28 to measure the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin concentration. Pigs fed a diet with the humic substances grew faster (p<0.05) during the first week postweaning, but performance was not different during the entire 5 wk period. Feed intake and gain/feed were the same among treatments. The slope ratio technique was used to estimate relative iron bioavailability. The concentration of blood hemoglobin did not respond to dietary iron levels using this model. However, the number of red blood cells (106/$\mu$l) was modeled by 4.438+0.017${\times}$ 'ron (mg/kg) from ${FeSO}_4$'0.012${\times}$'ron (mg/kg) from the humic substances' Based on the comparison between the slopes (0.012 from humic substances and 0.017 from ${FeSO}_4$), iron in humic substances was 71% as available as the iron in ${FeSO}_4$. The slopes for dietary feed intake of ${FeSO}_4$ and the iron in humic substances did not differ (p>0.05). Humic substances can replace ${FeSO}_4$ as an alternative iron source for pigs at 71% relative bioavailability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.128-131
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• 2003

It is well known that the membrane separation process combined with surfactant micelle (micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration) or polyelectrolyte (polyelectrolyte-enhanced ultrafiltration) can remove heavy metals effectively. However, the environmental hazard of surfactant or polyelectrolyte remained in effluent is a serious disadvantage of these methods. In this study, humic substances (HS) were used as complexing agents for metal removal instead of synthetic chemicals. The HS are a sort of natural organic matters which are biodegradable and abundant in natural environment. And the functional groups such as carboxyl groups and phenols in HS can bind with the cationic radionuclides and form complexes. Therefore separation process using them will be more environmental-friendly. The effects of concentration of HS and pH on the removal of cobalt were investigated. The ultrafiltration process was applied to the separation of the cobalt - HS complexes from the aqueous stream. At the concentration of > 3 g/L of HS and pH of 6, over 95 % of cobalt was removed by regenerated cellulose membrane of molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) 3,000. As the concentration of HS increased, the removal of cobalt also was improved because of increase in biding sites (functional groups). The cobalt removal increased from 72.5 % to 97.5 % when pH increased from 4 to 8 at the concentration of 3 g/L HS because of increase in HS solubility and cobalt hydroxide precipitation. In the presence of NaCl, the removal efficiency of cobalt decreased.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 1994

The individual and combined effects of acidic rain, Mg deficiency (-Mg) and Al surplus (＋Al) on the growth of shoots and roots of pitch pine seedlings and the effect of humic substances (Lit) on Al toxicity were investigated. The growth of height and dry matter were not significantly less for pitch pine seedlings sprayed with simulated acid rain (SAR) of pH 3.5 than for those sprayed with SAR of pH 5.6. But treatments of Al and ＋Al-Mg in soil solution reduced the growth of seedlings in terms of height of shoots, and dry matter of shoots or roots. Effect of Mg deficiency on the growth of seedlings was apparent only when Al was treated simutaneously. The growth of seedlings, regardless of rain pH, decreased in the following order: control=-Mg>Lit＋Al>＋Al>＋Al-Mg. Treatments of Al and ＋Al-Mg in soil solution reduced the total length of secondary and teritary roots of seedlings regardless of rain pH, and decreased in the following order: the primary root

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 1999

The leaching behaviour of $^{14}C$-paraquat in soil was investigated using soil columns (5 cm I.D. ${\times}$ 30 cm H.) parked with two soils of different physicochemical properties. $^{14}C$-Activities leached from the soil A (loam) columns with and without rice plants for 117 days were 0.42 and 0.54% of the originally applied, whereas those from the soil B (sandy loam) were 0.21 and 0.31%, respectively. $^{14}C$-Activities absorbed by rice plants from soil A and B were 3.87 and 2.79%, respectively, most of which remained in the root. Irrespective of soil types, more than 96% of the total $^{14}C$ resided in soil, mostly in the depth of $0{\sim}5$ cm. The water-extractable $^{14}C$ in soil was in the range of $6.10{\sim}9.01%$ of the total $^{14}C$ applied. The rest of $^{14}C$, which corresponds to non-extractable soil residues of [$^{14}C$]paraquat, was distributed in humic substances in the decreasing order of humin>humic acid>fulvic acid. The soil pH of the columns without rice plants increased after the leaching experiment due to the flooded anaerobic condition resulting in the reduction of the $H^{+}$ concentration, whereas that of the columns with rice plants did not increase by the offsetting effect of the acidic exudates from the roots. Low mobility of paraquat in soil strongly indicates that no contamination of ground water would be caused by paraquat residues in paddy soils under normal precipitation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.175-179
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• 2018

Humic substances that can be obtained from coal resources such as leonardite in a bulk scale have been employed as crop stimulators and soil conditioners. The polymeric organics containing a variety of aromatic and aliphatic structures are known to activate plants in a multifunctional way, thus resulting in enhanced germination rate and abiotic stress resistance concomitant with induction of numerous genes and proteins. Although detailed structural-functional relationship of humic substances for plant stimulations has not been deciphered yet, cutting-edge analytical tools have unraveled critical features of humic architectures that could be linked to the action mechanisms of their plant stimulations. In this review article, we introduce key findings of humic structures and related biological functions that boost plant growth and abiotic stress resistance. Oxygen-based functional groups and plant hormone-like structures combined with labile and recalcitrant carbon backbones are believed to be critical moieties to induce plant stimulations. Some proteins such as HIGH-AFFINITY $K^+$ TRANSPORTER 1, phospholipase A2 and $H^+$-ATPase have been also recognized as key players that could be critically involved in humic substance-driven changes in plant physiology.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.70-79
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• 2015

A sample of soil humic acid (HA) was divided by ultrafiltration (UF) into five fractions of different molecular size (UF₁: > 300, UF₂: 100~300, UF₃: 30~100, UF₄: 10~30, UF₅: 1~10 kilodaltons). Apparent average molecular weight (M_w) of the HA fractions were measured using high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), and the chemical and structural properties of the five HA fractions were characterized by elemental compositions (H/C, O/C and w ((2O + 3NH)/ C)) and ultraviolet-visible absorption ratios (SUVA, A_4/6). The organic carbon normalized-sorption coefficients (Koc) for the binding of phenanthrene to the HA fractions were determined by fluorescence quenching and relationship between the sorption coefficients and structural characteristics of the HA fractions were investigated. The elemental analysis and UV-vis spectral data indicated that the HA fractions with higher molecular weights have grater aliphatic character and lower contents of oxygen, while the HA fractions with lower molecular size have greater aromatic character and molecular polarity that correspond to greater SUVA and internal oxidation values (w). The log Koc values (L/kg C) were gradual increased from 4.45 for UF₅ to 4.87 for UF1. The correlation study between the structural descriptors of the HA fractions and log Koc values of phenanthrene show that the magnitude of Koc values positively correlated with $M_w$ and H/C, while negatively correlated with the independent descriptors of the O/C, w, SUVA and A_4/6.