• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 2024

In this study, the various whitening activities of Inonotus obliquus were assessed for potential use as functional cosmetic materials. When measuring electron donating ability to confirm the antioxidant ability of I. obliquus extract, increased activity was observed as the concentration increased, and it was found an outstanding antioxidant capacity of 82.1% at a 1,000 ㎍/ml concentration. Also, the tyrosinase inhibitory effect, related to a whitening effect, was found to have inhibitory activity that increased in a concentration-dependent manner. The results of verifying the viability of melanoma cells (B16F10) using an MTT assay showed cell viability of more than 80% at concentrations below 100 ㎍/ml. Therefore, cell-related experiments were conducted at 25, 50, and 100 ㎍/ml concentrations. By measuring protein expression related to melanin synthesis via treating B16F10 cells with I. obliquus extract, it was confirmed that protein expression was inhibited in all factors, depending on the concentration. TRP-1 and MITF appeared by 40.1% and 64.2% amount of expression, respectively, at 100 ㎍/ml concentrations, and tyrosinase and TRP-2 were verified as having better protein expression inhibition than arbutin. In measuring mRNA expression related to melanin synthesis by treating B16F10 cells with I. obliquus extract, it was confirmed that mRNA expression was suppressed as the concentration increased. Accordingly, it was confirmed that I. obliquus extract has excellent whitening activity and could be used as a cosmetic material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.633-640
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• 2004

This study was performed to investigate the cytotoxic effect of the water-extract from Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) compositions containing powdered green tea in HCT-15 human colon carcinoma, AGS human gastric carcinoma and NIH3T3 mouse normal fibroblast cells using viable cell count and MTT assay. The water-extract from Chaga mushroom compositions induced inhibitory effects on proliferation of HCT-15 and AGS cells in the MTT assay and viable cell count. However, mouse normal NIH3T3 cells were exhibited 80% survival under the same condition. Chaga mushroom compositions showed highly antiproliferative effect in human cancer cell line HCT-15 and AGS, but not in mouse normal cell line NIH3T3. These results suggest that Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) compositions containing powdered green tea are the candidate for chemoprevention in colon and gastric cancer.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.177-185
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• 2012

Inonotus obliquus mushroom, which is a fungus belonging to Hymenochaetaceae family, is known to grow on birth trees in colder northern climates and to be a fungal parasite that draws nutrients out of living trees rather than from the ground. For the separation of protein-bound polysaccharide (PBP) from the culture broth and mycelium of Inonotus obliquus, three well known extraction methods namely hot water, ultrasound and microwave were used. The best extraction conditions to separate the PBP (64.94 mg/g) from mycelium by microwave were found to be for 1 hour and $150^{\circ}C$. The possibility for concentration of extracted PBP solution by using membrane was also studied. The extracted PBP solution was concentrated effectively by using an ultrafiltration membrane and the molecular weight cut off (MWCO) is 30 KDa. It was observed that a concentration by the ultrafiltration membrane is essential not only for the development of clean separation technology but also for enhanced production of PBP. As a result, we have shown that PBP in the final concentrated solution showed approximately 10 times higher than that in the crude solution by application of the developed separation systems. The separation yield of PBP was about 89.79% by gel filtration of purification steps and the purified product was confirmed to be PBP by using FT-IR.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.144-147
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• 2008

Inonotus obliquus could be isolated from Betula platyphylla var. japonica with diameter in the range of 6$\sim$13 cm that artificially inoculated by the fungus. The diameter and/or inoculation point of tree did not show any significant relationships with the infection rate of the fungus. Inonotus obliquus showed rapid growth on vertical direction of the infected tree while the growth was quite low on radial direction. The isolated fungus from the infected tree did not show vegetative incompatibility with the original fungus used for inoculation. We could isolate 8 contaminants from the inoculated area; Trichoderma reesei, T. atroviride, Cryptococcus neoformans, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium sp. and 3 unknown species.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

Inonotus obliquus is one of the immune-regulatory substances and is recognized to play the role in the metabolic process of inflammation, allergy and immuntiy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of water extracts of Inonotus obliquus (IOW) on the liver lymphocyte immune function in the Sprague-Dawley male rats treated with carbon tetrachloride ($CCl_4$) to induce liver damage. Rats were fed with each experimental diet and water for 4 weeks. We found that effects of IOW on interferon-gamma (IFN-$\gamma$), signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1), phospho-signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (pSTAT1) and GATA-binding protein 3 (GATA-3) were decrease in vivo. Interleukin-4 (IL-4), STAT6, pSTAT6 and T-box expressed in T-cells (T-bet) decreased significantly lower in $CCl_4$+IOW group than the $CCl_4$ group. Our data indicated that cytokine protein production were increased in $CCl_4$ group and $CCl_4$+IOW group. As a result of this study, we assume that IOW fed could regulate the immuno-modulating functions through regulate the cytokine production capacity activated by liver damage.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.155-166
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• 2010

Studies on the production of cell-wall bound innerpolysaccharides (IPS) (soluble ${\beta}$-D-glucan) have been performed by use of suspended myelial cultures of Inonotus obliquus. This product has promising potentials as an effective antidiabetic as well as an immunostimulating agents. As a first step to enhanced production of IPS, Intensive strain improvement programs were carried out by obtaining a large amounts of protoplasts for the isolation of single cell colonies. Rapid and large screening of high-yielding producers was possible because about fivefold higher amount of protoplasts ($2.3{\times}10^6$ protoplasts/mL) could be recovered with relatively high regeneration rates of $10^{-2}{\sim}10^{-3}$ by applying a modified filtration method, as compared to the previously used trapping method. A basic protocol necessary for UV-mutation of the protoplasts was also developed, resulting in several overproducing variants with good fermentation properties. Since the amount of IPS extracted from the mycelial cell walls of I. obliquus turned out to be almost constant per g DCW, increase in cell mass was considered the most important factor for the enhancement in IPS production. Therefore, attempts were made to screen mutant cells showing rapid mycelial growth rate in the final suspended cultures. Notably, the mutant strains showing an active cellgrowth in the preceding solid growth cultures were observed to produce higher amount of IPS in the suspended fermentations as well. A striking mutant, OBLQ756-15-5 strain, obtained from the survivors of a harsh UV-treated condition (97% death rate) was found to stably produce as high cell mass as 22 g DCW/L in the final fermentations. Currently, this strain is being tested for development of a scaled-up fermentation process for mass production of IPS.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 2010

The Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) has been used in folk medicine to treat cancers. However, limited information exists on the underlying anticancer effects of the major component of I. obliquus in vivo. We hypothesize that the pure compounds ($3{\beta}$-hydroxy-lanosta-8,24-dien-21-al, inotodiol and lanosterol, respectively) separated from I. obliquus would inhibit tumor growth in Balbc/c mice bearing Sarcoma-180 cells (S-180) in vivo and growth of human carcinoma cells in vitro. To test this hypothesis, the growth inhibition of each subfraction isolated from I. obliquus on human carcinoma cell lines (lung carcinoma A-549 cells, stomach adenocarcinoma AGS cells, breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells, and cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells) was tested in vitro. Then, after S-180 implantation, the mice were fed a normal chow supplemented with 0, 0.1 or 0.2 mg of subfraction 1, 2 or 3 per mouse per day. All of the subfractions isolated from I. obliquus showed significant cytotoxic activity against the selected cancer cell lines in vitro. Subfraction 1 was more active than subfraction 2 and subfraction 3 against the A549, AGS and MCF-7 cancer cell lines in vitro. In in vivo results, subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus at concentrations of 0.1 and 0.2 mg/mouse per day significantly decreased tumor volume by 23.96% and 33.71%, respectively, as compared with the control. Subfractions 2 and 3 also significantly inhibited tumor growth in mice bearing S-180 as compared with the control mouse tumor. Subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus showed greater inhibition of tumor growth than subfractions 2 and 3, which agrees well with the in vitro results. The results suggest that I. obliquus and its compounds in these subfractions isolated from I. obliquus could be used as natural anticancer ingredients in the food and/or pharmaceutical industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.835-843
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• 2010

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of fermentation medium on the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of exopolysaccharides from Inonotus obliquus by response surface methodology (RSM). A two-level fractional factorial design was used to evaluate the effect of different components of the medium. Corn flour, peptone, and $KH_2PO_4$ were important factors significantly affecting hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. These selected variables were subsequently optimized using path of steepest ascent (descent), a central composite design, and response surface analysis. The optimal medium composition was (% w/v): corn flour 5.30, peptone 0.32, $KH_2PO_4$ 0.26, $MgSO_4$ 0.02, and $CaCl_2$ 0.01. Under the optimal condition, the hydroxyl radical scavenging rate (49.4%) was much higher than that using either basal fermentation medium (10.2%) and single variable optimization of fermentation medium (35.5%). The main monosaccharides components of the RSM optimized polysaccharides are rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, glucose, and galactose with molar proportion at 1.45%, 3.63%, 2.17%, 15.94%, 50.00%, and 26.81%.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2011

Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) extract has been known to have therapeutic effects, such as anti-inflammatory, hepato-protective, anti-oxidant and anti-tumor effect. In this study, we evaluated the effects of Chaga extract on the cytotoxic actions of cisplatin in HepG2 hepatoma cells. The viability of the HepG2 cells was decreased to 10% at 3 ${\mu}M$ cisplatin and to 20% at 500 ${\mu}g$/ml Chaga extract as measured by the MTT assay. The viability of HepG2 cells co-treated with cisplatin (3 ${\mu}M$) and Chaga extract (500 ${\mu}g$/ml) was decreased to 50% in compared with the control cells. The cytotoxicity of two drugs was revealed as apoptosis characterized by the chromatic condensation, nuclear fragmentation and the cleavage of pro caspase-3 in HepG2 cells. Also, the cells treated with combination of two drugs showed synergistically the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and increase of intracellular ROS levels. Therefore, these results suggest that the combination treatment of cisplatin and Chaga extract induces apoptotic cell death in HepG2 cells and has more potential anti-tumor effect than cisplatin alone.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.5 s.133
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• pp.92-98
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• 2005

This study was performed to get the basic information concerned to the optimum culture condition of Inonotus obliquus. Several solid media, PDA, MEA and Czapek-Dox, and three liquid media were adopted for the in vitro cultivation. Some main features of the fungal morphological characteristics under cultivation conditions were observed and described. Preliminary results showed that appearance of the mycelial mat, hyphal size and substrate pigmentation differed according to the media. The PDA medium was the most favorable substrate for the growth on solid culture, followed by MEA and Czapek-Dox media. Concerned to the addition of amino acids, 5 amino acids, such as alanine, alginine, isoleucine, leucine and threonine, enhanced to the mycelial growth. Isoleucine was shown the best fungal growth. An important morphological hyphal structure for the fungus, the setae, was found in abundance and diverse its shape and size. In liquid culture, fresh potato broth was the best growth stimulant of the fungus, followed by Malt extract and potato broth. Addition of yeast extract to the liquid media had improved the biomass, but not laccase production.