• Title/Summary/Keyword: Korean Medicinal Plant

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Distribution of Cd and Pb Accumulated in Medicinal Plant Roots and Their Cultivation Soils

  • Seo, Byoung-Hwan;Kim, Hyuck Soo;Bae, Jun-Sik;Kim, Won-Il;Hong, Chang-Ho;Kim, Kwon-Rae
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.48 no.4
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    • pp.278-284
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    • 2015
  • In general, plant roots accumulate more heavy metals than the above ground organs such as leaf, stem, and fruit. This implies that root medicinal plants would be an issue with excessive heavy metal accumulation. Therefore, the current study was carried out to investigate the distribution of heavy metal (focused on Cd and Pb) concentrations in soils and medicinal plant roots grown in different region of Korea. Total 293 samples for each soil and plant were collected along the national wide. Soil pH, total and phytoavailable metal concentrations (1 M $NH_4NO_3$ extracted) in soils were determined and heavy metal concentrations in root of the medicinal plants were analyzed. Heavy metal concentrations of the soil samples studied were not exceeded standard limits legislated in 'Soil Environmental Conservation Act', except 2 samples for Cu. However, substantial amount of Cd was accumulated in medicinal plant roots with 29% samples exceeding the standard limit legislated in 'Pharmaceutical Affairs Act' while all plant samples were lower than the standard limit value for Pb. Also the current study demonstrated that cadmium concentrations in the roots were governed by the phytoavailable Cd in soils, which decreased as soil pH increased. From this result, application of heavy metal immobilization technique using a pH change-induced immobilizing agents can be suggested for safer root medicinal plant production.

Immunostimulatory Activity of Hibiscus manihot Flower in Mouse Macrophages, RAW264.7 Cells

  • Geum, Na Gyeong;Yu, Ju Hyeong;Yeo, Joo Ho;Choi, Min Yeong;Park, Gwang Hun;Hong, Se Chul;Jeong, Jin Boo
    • Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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    • v.34 no.6
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    • pp.536-541
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    • 2021
  • In this study, we investigated whether Hibiscus manihot flowers (HMF) exhibits immunostimulatory activity in RAW264.7 cells. HMF increased the production of immunostimulatory factors such as NO, iNOS, IL-1β and TNF-α in RAW264.7 cells. TLR2 and TLR4 blocked HMF-mediated production of immunostimulatory factors in RAW264.7 cells. In addition, the inhibition of MAPK signaling pathway reduced HMF-mediated production of immunostimulatory factors. From these results, HMF is thought to promote the production of immunostimulatory factors through activating TLR2/4/MAPK signaling in macrophages. It is believed that HMF can be developed as an agent related to immune enhancement in the future.

Development of molecular biological techniques for the differentiation of medicinal plant species (약용작물의 기원 판별에 관한 분자생물학적 기술 개발 현황)

  • Han, Eun-Heui;Kim, Yun-Hee;Lee, Shin-Woo
    • Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.6-12
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    • 2015
  • Medicinal plants resources are becoming important assets since their usages have been expanded to the development of functional foods for human health, more attractive cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries. However, their phylogenetic origins and names are different from each country and quite often they are mixed each other resulting in the confusion for consumers. In particular, when they are very similar based on their morphological characteristics and distributed as dried roots, it is extremely difficult to differentiate their origins even by specialists. Recently, "DNA barcodes" have been extensively applied to identify their origin of medicinal plant species. In this review, we tried to overview the current research achievements for the development of suitable "DNA barcodes" regarding to the differentiation of medicinal plant species. Furthermore, more advanced techniques including amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR, multiplex single base extension (MSBE), high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analyses are also discussed for their practical applications in the authentification of particular medicinal plant species.

Immunostimulatory Activity of Hibiscus syriacus L. Leaves in Mouse Macrophages, RAW264.7 cells, and Immunosuppressed Mice

  • Na Gyeong Geum;Ju Hyeong Yu;So Jung Park;Min Yeong Choi;Jae Won Lee;Gwang Hun Park;Hae-Yun Kwon;Jin Boo Jeong
    • Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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    • v.35 no.6
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    • pp.697-703
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    • 2022
  • Under the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in immune enhancement is increasing. Although the immune-enhancing activity of plants of the genus Hibiscus has been reported, there is no study on the immune-enhancing activity of H. syriacus. Thus, in this study, we investigated the immune-enhancing activity of Hibiscus syriacus leaves (HSL) in mouse macrophages, RAW264.7 cells, and immunosuppressed mice. HSL increased the production of immunostimulatory factors such as nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and activated the phagocytosis in RAW264.7 cells. The HSL-mediated production of immunostimulatory factors was dependent on toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), p38, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in RAW264.7 cells. In the immunosuppressed mouse model, HSL increased the spleen index, the levels of the cytokines, and the numbers of lymphocytes, neutrophils, and monocytes. Taken together, HSL may be considered to have immune-enhancing activity and be expected to be used as a potential immune-enhancing agent.

A Fundmental Study on the Medicinal Plant For Cut Plants (절화로 이용할 수 있는 약용식물에 관한 기초 연구)

  • 서병기
    • Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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    • v.8 no.2
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    • pp.143-151
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    • 1995
  • The development of medicinal plants for cut plants and landscape plants were conducted through the literiture survey. The results were as follows: We selected 38 species of medicinal plants including 7 medicinal woody plants for cut plant and landscape plants from 450 medicinal plants. There were 8 species of Compositae, 4 species Ranunculaceae, 3 species Rosaceae and Umbelliferae, 2 species Polygonaceae and Campanulaceae respectively. The anthesis of Cornus officinalis, Magnolia denudata, Forsythia koreana of medicinal woody plants flowering before leaf spreading come to early than the anthesis of other medicinal plants. There were 4 species(11%) over 10cm of the flower diameter, 6 species(16%) over 5cm below 10cm, 19 species(50%) over 1cm below 5cm and 9 species(24%) 1cm below. In terms of flower color, 11 species(29%) were white, 9 species(24%) yellow, 6 pecies(16%) red, 5 species(13%) violet and 3 species(8%) were blue aided violet. In terms of the flowering by month, 12 species(32%) on July, 9 species(24%) on May, 6 species(16%) on June and August respectively, and 3 species(8%) on March. The most medicinal plants were propagated by division and seeding easily, but woody medicinal plants of 7 species of this study were propagated by cutting and grafting easily. The percentage of usage of parts of medicinal plants including woody medicinal plants was that roots were 20 species(53%), flowers 6 species(16%), fruits and all part of medicinal plants were 4 species(11%), and seeds and stem including leaves 2 species(5%) respectively.

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