• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.609-620
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• 1999

Over the period between January 1997 and December 1998, herbal medicine was more than three times administered to the patients coming to Na dong gyu's Oriental Medical Clinic on account of the symptom of growth deficiency. According to radiological opinions about the patients providing cooperation for measuring their height and weight as well as their bone age every three months, it was found that the growth plates were not closed. A research was conducted for 200 children randomly selected of patients in prepuberty (they grew by less than 5cm a year before treatment at a age of 12years for female children and 14years for male children). As a result, the following conclusion was drawn: 1. The randomly selected subjects were made up of 116 male and 84 female children in terms of gender. The age direstribution was most 10 to 12 years in 86 children(34.00%), followed by 8-10 years(27.50%) and 12 to 14 years(19.50%). 2. Considering the distribution of sick children's parental height, the fathers of 141 children(70.50%) measured less than 170cm high, the subaverage height, while the mothers of 172 children(86%) measured less than 160cm high, the subaverage height. It was shown that sick childen's height was genetically influenced by their parents. 3. Children patients's weight at a time of birth was most 3.1-3.5kg for 85 children(44%) and less than 2.5kg which came under the range of growth dificiency for 19 children(9.5%). 4. The highest proportian of the children patients with growth dificiency(56.33%) had the symptom of digestive disorders, of which 77 children patients(18.78%) had anorexia, 16.59% of children patients had the high level of respiratory disorders. Both the digestive disorder and the respiratory disorder put together, they had the high rate of 72.92%. Therefore, this indicates that both the digestive disorder and the respiratory disorder have a great effect on children's growth dificiency. 10.74% of chilren patients were shown to have allergic disorders, which indicates that they also exert an effect on growth deficiency. Specifically, 7.07% of the children patients had the high level of obesity, which shows that an excessive uptake of nutrition may rather induce children to have growth dificiency though an appropriate amount of nutritional uptake is necessary. 5. Comparing their bone age and their chronological age, 58 children patients(29.00%) showed that they were the same at the highest percent. 79 children patients(39.50%) showed that thier bone age was lower than their chronological age. And 63 children patients(31.50%) showed that their bone age was higher than their chronological age. 6. As regards the prescription administered to children patients for treating their growth dificiency, Growth tang A related to the kidney, the congenital factor, of the causes for growth dificiency in traditional Oriental Medicine was administered to 108 children patients(54%), whereas the Growth tang B related to the spleen, the acquired factor, was administered to 92 children patients(46%). 7. 116 male children patients with growth dificiency had the average value of growth for one year before treatment, 4.39cm, while 84 female children patients had the average value of growth for one year before treatment, 4.24cm. A total of 200 children had the average value of growth for one year before treatment, 4.33cm. The annual average value of growth in growth curve surveyed by the Korea Pediatrics Society was 5.79cm. Compared to this value, the one year average value of growth for 108 male and female children patients taking Growth tang A was shown be 8.44cm, which indicates a greater growth by 4.12cm(95.37%) in comparison with the average value of growth before treatment, 4.32cm, and a greater growth by 2.65cm(45.77%) compared to 5.79cm, the average value of growth in growth curve surveyed by the Korea Pediatrics Society. Also, the average value of growth before treatment for 92 male and female children patients taking Growth tang B was shown to be 8.47cm, which indicates a greater increase by 4.15cm(96.06%) compared to 4.32cm, the average value of growth before treatment and a greater increase by 2.67cm(46.29%) in comparison with 5.79cm, the average value of growth in growth curve surveyed by the Korea Pediatrics Society. Considering the average value of growth for male and female children patients taking Growth tang A and B, it was shown to be 8.46cm, which indicates a greater increase by 4.14cm(95.81%) compared to 4.32cm, the average value of growth before treatment, and a greater increase by 2.67cm(46.11%) compared to 5.79cm, the average value of growth in growth curve surveyed by the Korea Pediatrics Society.

• The Journal of Korean Medical History
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.121-136
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• 2012

The purpose of this paper is to derive the features of cold damage clinical medicine during the early days of the Chosun(朝鮮) period by analyzing discussions on cold damage published in the official medical book of the Chosun period, Compendium of Prescription from the Countryside(鄕藥集成方, CPC). Cold damage was one of the typical diseases in East Asia where there was constant seeking of the utilization of prescriptions, ways of preparations, and awareness regarding cold damage as shown in Zhang, Zhongjing(張仲景)'s Treatise on Cold Damage Disease(傷寒論, TCDD) below. Traditional Korean medicine which possessed the medical universality of East Asia also was no exception and through an analysis of the part on cold damage in CPC, it is expected that medical features of cold damage in Korea passed down from the Koryo(高麗) Dynasty to the early Chosun period will be revealed. For this, first there needs to be an organization of past discussions on cold damage surrounding the existence of infection and after checking the issues, exploring which of the writings related to TCDD and editions are being utilized through an analysis on citing literature of Cold Damage Disease Literature(傷寒門) and Heat Pathogen Disease Literature(熱病門) which have developed discussions on cold damage in CPC. In addition, by comparing Peaceful Holy Benevolent Prescription(太平聖惠方, PHBP) and Complete Record of Sacred Benevolence(聖濟總錄, CRSB), known to have greatly influenced CPC and Cold Damage Literature and Heat Pathogen Disease Literature, features of form and content used by CPC were analyzed. Features of form were examined through pattern of organization and number of citing literature were examined and for features of content, cold damage infection, classification, syndrome differentiation method, and utilization of materia medica among prescriptions were examined. Discussions on cold damage as being uninfectious as stated in Treatise on the Pathogenesis and Manifestations of All Diseases(諸病源候論) unlike pestilence, epidemic pathogen(時氣), warm pathogen disease(溫病), and heat pathogen disease were excluded in PHBP. PHBP opened the possibility of cold damage infection and later writings, CRSB and CPC also follow this. As a result of analyzing citing literature of the part on cold damage in CPC, it is uncertain which edition of TCDD is being utilized; however, the most distinctive feature was that Classified Emergency Materia Medica(證類本草) and not writings specializing in cold damage are in use. In general, although CPC in terms of form is similar to CRSB, content creation predominantly depended on PHBP. More specifically; first, in terms of the existence of cold damage infection, arguments of PHBP and CRSB are maintained. Second, in terms of cold damage classification, although CRSB is followed, heat pathogen disease is classified separately developing PHBP as is. Third, in terms of method, as Book of Keep Healthy(南陽活人書) and CRSB compiled in later times are cited, it is deemed that arguments were raised to a certain extent regarding six-meridian syndrome differentiation(六經辨證). Fourth, although the majority of utilized materia medica among cold damage prescriptions utilize Materia Medica from the Countryside(鄕藥本草) in CPC and materia medica from Korean Peninsula, this is due to the desire for the compilation performance of CPC to be propagated to ordinary citizens and not the ruling class. CPC as the official medical book compiled in the early days of the Chosun period was greatly influenced by the Song(宋) Dynasty's medical books, PHBP and CRSB shows that cold damage medicine in the early Chosun Period indeed possesses the medical universality of East Asia. Furthermore, the features of published medical theory and prescriptions reveal the existence of the cold damage medical tradition of the Chosun period serving as clues for cold damage research tradition among Korea's medical history.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.217-230
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• 1998

The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to define the relationship between the experience of Sanhuujori, Korean traditional non-professional postpartal care after delivery and abortion and present health status of chronic arthritis female patient who visited to outpatient clinic of rheumatic internal medicine at a hospital located in Seoul, Korea. A convenience sample of 64 women who orally agreed to be a participant and data were collected form October 1996 to May, 1997 for sis months by way of interview with semistructured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by the SPSS pc program using t-test, ANOVA and Scheffe test as a post hoc and Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of the study were as follows ; Mean age of participants was 53.2 years and mean number of children was 3.1. Mean frequency of abortion was 2.1 times per woman. Seventy four percentage of respondents did not have Sanhujori after abortion. The mean period of Sanhujori after delivery was 17.7, 15.2, 13.8 days from the first child to third child and shorter than that of general woman such as 20.0, 19.0, 17.3 days in the previous study. On the subjective evaluation of whether the women did Sanhujori well or not, the rate of 'did Sanhujori wrongly' was the highest rank in each child where as general woman 'did Sanhujori well' at the first child, 'moderate' at the second and third child and 'did Sanhujori wrongly' at the 4th and fifth child. The health status implies both subjective health status women perceived and the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress women are experiencing presently. The respondents of 82.5% perceived them as unhealthy or sick and 68.9% of women complained more than two symptoms. Mean number of physical symptom distress women complained was 2.33. The main sites of physical symptom distress were upper & lower extremities 69.1% including knee and hand, whole body 19.1%, neck 3.7%, waist & shoulders 2.7% respectively. The characteristics of the symptoms were mostly pain 60%, swelling 19.8%, rigidity & deformity 7.9% respectively, sensation of heat 6.8% and weakness 1.7%. Women perceived the etiology of the chronic arthritis as stress 25.8%, 'did Sanhujori wrongly' & overwork 23.4% respectively, genetic 12.9%, malnutrition, 4.8%, and aging process 3.2%. There were significant positive correlation between subjective health status and the period of Sanhujori after delivery of the second child(r=-0.22) and negative correlation with the number of child at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=0.27). There were significant negative correlation between the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress and the subjective evaluation whether she did Sanhujori well or not at the level of 5% of significance statistically(r=-0.23). And the rate of complaints of physical symptom distress in the group of women who experienced abortion was significantly higher than that of women who did not experience it at the level of 5% significance statistically(t=2.00) In conclusion, this finding reconfirmed the possible relationship between health status of chronic arthritis female patient and the experience of Sanhujori after delivery & abortion. It provides a challenge to the professional care givers to research further on the effects of Sanhujori on the health status, health recovery after abortion or delivery from the various aspects through the crosssectional and longitudinal research for the refinement of the reality of not only as cultural phenomenon but as conceptual model for the appropriateness of intervention and quality of care for desirable health outcomes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.416-430
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• 2017

The kenaf plant is used widely as food and in traditional folk medicine. This study evaluated the morphological characteristics, functional compounds, and genetic diversity of 32 kenaf cultivars from a worldwide collection. We found significant differences in the functional compounds of leaves from all cultivars, including differences in levels of chlorogenic acid isomer (CAI), chlorogenic acid (CA), kaempferol glucosyl rhamnoside isomer (KGRI), kaempferol rhamnosyl xyloside (KRX), kaemperitrin (KAPT) and total phenols (TPC). The highest TPC, KAPT, CA, and KRX contents were observed in the C22 cultivars. A significant correlation was observed between flowering time and DM yield, seed yield, and four phenolic compounds (KGRI, KRX, CAI, and TPC) (P < 0.01). To assess genetic diversity, we used 80 simple sequence repeats (SSR) primer sets and identified 225 polymorphic loci in the kenaf cultivars. The polymorphism information content and genetic diversity values ranged from 0.11 to 0.79 and 12 to 0.83, with average values of 0.39 and 0.43, respectively. The cluster analysis of the SSR markers showed that the kenaf genotypes could be clearly divided into three clusters based on flowering time. Correlations analysis was conducted for the 80 SSR markers; morphological, chemical and growth traits were found for 15 marker traits (corolla, vein, petal, leaf, stem color, leaf shape, and KGRI content) with significant marker-trait correlations. These results could be used for the selection of kenaf cultivars with improved yield and functional compounds.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.99-107
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• 2017

A species of Cordyceps, an ingredient in Chinese traditional medicine well-known for its major component, cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine), has been known to have antiplatelet effects; however, its effects on regulation of phosphoprotein have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated how cordycepin regulates the phosphoprotein, including phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt and p38, to inhibit platelet aggregation, which are concerned with fibrinogen binding to glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (${\alpha}IIb/{\beta}_3$) and granule secretion in platelets. Our finding suggests that cordycepin inhibits collagen-induced platelet aggregation with $261.1{\mu}M$ of $IC_{50}$ and also inhibits fibrinogen binding to ${\alpha}IIb/{\beta}_3$ by a suppression of PI3K/Akt phosphorylation in a dose dependent manner. In addition, cordycepin further showed to inhibit collagen-induced p38 phosphorylation, reducing granule secretion (i.e. ATP- and serotonin-release) and thromboxane $A_2$ ($TXA_2$) production without regulating cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and thromboxane A synthase (TXAS) activities, as well as phospholipase $C-{\gamma}_2$ ($PLC-{\gamma}_2$) phosphorylation. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that cordycepin-mediated antiplatelet effects were due to the inhibition of fibrinogen binding to ${\alpha}IIb/{\beta}_3$ via the suppression of PI3K/Akt phosphorylation and inhibition of granule secretion & $TXA_2$ production by suppressing p38 phosphorylation. These results strongly indicate that cordycepin might have therapeutic or preventive potential for platelet aggregation-mediated disorders, regulating the phosphoprotein, including PI3K/Akt and p38.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1253-1258
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• 2016

Although major advances have been achieved in our understanding and treatment of diseases in many areas of medicine, relatively few improvements have been made in the area of gastrointestinal (GI) motor function. The dried root of Codonopsis pilosula (Franch.) Nannf. (CP) has been used as a traditional folk medicine for improving poor GI function in East Asia, including China and Korea. In the present study, neither aqueous (CP-W) nor ethanolic (CP-E) extracts of CP showed significant toxicity, even at an oral dose of 5 g/kg to mice. The effects of CP-W and CP-E on GI motor function were investigated by measuring in vivo the gastric emptying rate (GER) and intestinal transit rate (ITR) in mice. In normal mice, the ITR was significantly increased by CP-W in a dose-dependent manner, whereas the GER was not significantly affected by any CP extracts. The ITR was significantly retarded in the mice with experimental GI motility dysfunction (i.e., peritoneal irritation by acetic acid) compared with that in normal mice. However, the retardation was significantly recovered by the pre-treatment of CP-W in a dose-dependent manner. The above results suggest that CP-W might be a potential prokinetic agent preventing or alleviating GI motility dysfunctions in human patients.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.110-115
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the potential of medicinal plants as oral health materials derived from natural products. Among the extracts from 200 medicinal plants grown in Nepal, Laos, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and China, stem extracts from Diospyros malabarica (1 mg/disc) showed the highest antibacterial activity against Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC33277 and Streptococcus mutans ATCC25175. The D. malabarica stem extracts showed antibacterial activity similar to chlorhexidine, sodium lauryl sulfate, and triclosan, which were used as a positive control, as well as higher antibacterial activity against S. mutans ATCC25175 than P. gingivalis ATCC33277. The D. malabarica stem extracts showed bactericidal action (MBC, 0.4 mg/ml) against P. gingivalis ATCC33277 and bacteriostatic action against S. mutans ATCC25175. The biofilm production rate of S. mutans ATCC25175 and the expression of the comX gene associated to biofilm formation in the cultures treated with 0.2-1.0 mg/ml of D. malabarica stem extracts were suppressed in a concentration-dependent manner. Based on the above results, it can be concluded that D. malabarica stem extracts can be used as oral health material derived from natural materials, as demonstrated by the bacteriostatic action and inhibition of biofilm formation against S. mutans ATCC25175.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.460-467
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• 2020

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the word. Although radiation and chemotherapy are generally effective, there are various side effects that greatly limit the effectiveness of these treatments. Therefore, traditional herbs may have potential as important resources for the discovery of liver cancer therapeutics. In this study, we selected three Korean herbal medicine formulas from the Donguibogam, namely Bigihwan (BGH), Daechilgithang (DCGT), and Mokwhyangbinranghwan (MHBRH), and evaluated their anti-cancer effects on HCC cells. According to our results of three ethanol extracts, BGH was more effective at suppressing HCC growth than DCGT or MHBRH. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis showed that inhibition of HCC proliferation by the three extracts was associated with the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. In particular, BGH significantly increased mitochondrial impairment and showed the possibility of inducing mitophagy in comparison with the other two extracts. BGH prominently upregulated the levels of microtubule-associated protein light chain-3 which was accompanied by a decrease in the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 without altering the expression of pro-apoptotic Bax. In addition, the levels of PTEN-induced kinase 1 were also markedly increased in BGH-treated HCC cells. Moreover, autophagy blocking improved cell viability and reduced apoptosis after the three treatments, indicating that autophagy by these extracts enhances HCC cells against cytotoxicity. In conclusion, our findings show that BGH demonstrates the highest anti-cancer activity among the three formulas and inhibits the proliferation of HCC cells through autophagy induction.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.83-107
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• 2019

This article focuses on §10 of Criminal Act of the Republic of Korea to discuss how to determine criminal responsibility of a perpetrator suffering from mental disorders, while reviewing existing process and standards of mental examination at each stage of the criminal procedure as well as exploring suggestions regarding how they should be complied. The determination of the sanity or criminal responsibility of the mentally ill as defined in the §10 of Criminal Act, by its nature, cannot be approached with a traditional, clear-cut dichotomy of biology by medical practitioner and psychology·normative science by lawyer. Looking into the actual procedure of determining mental and physical disorder with special consideration of mental illness reveals the inevitability of collaboration between lawyers and psychiatrists. In the meantime, the process and standards of mental examination at each stage of the criminal procedure must be definitive and clear. First of all, during the investigation stage, examination prior to prosecution should be more actively encouraged, considering that judging sanity of the perpetrator at the time of committing a criminal act is important. During the trial stage, the mandatory examination must be conducted depending on the sensitivity and gravity of the case. Next, medical examination to determine criminal responsibility and the one to order treatment and custody must be separately conducted in order to properly execute medical treatment and custody. Obligatory mental examination could be considered both during the stage of request for and execution of the treatment and custody. Lastly, the procedure of examination and format of examination documents need to be standardized for better objectivity and reliability.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.658-662
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• 2013

Rubus coreanus and Astragalus membranaceus Bunge have been used as a traditional medicine with various pharmacological properties for a long time in Asia. We investigated the proliferative and differentiative effects on osteoblastic cells, MG-63 in various mixture ratios of immature fructus extracts of R. coreanus and root extracts of A. membranaceus. With preliminary in vivo ovariectomized mice, we confirmed the effects of the supplementation of various mixture on alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in serum. The ratio of 7:3 is considered as the most effective ratio for the proliferation of osteoblastic cells as they increased by 56.8% similar to estradiol. ALP activity in osteoblast increased by the combination of R. coreanus and A. membranaceus and peaked in the ratio of 72:28 and 68:32 respectively. These results indicate that the optimal combination of R. coreanus and A. membranaceus in 7:3 has the most beneficial effects on the activation of osteoblast cells, and give further possibilities that it can be used clinically in the treatment of osteoporosis.