• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.676-681
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• 2014

Licorice, widely used as a herbal medicine, has flavonoids such as liquiritin and its aglycone, liquiritigenin that show anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Licorice flavonoid-loaded cellulose hydrogels were prepared as carriers for skin drug delivery, and their properties were investigated. The porous cellulose hydrogel was made by reacting cellulose with epichlorohydrin as a cross-linking agent in NaOH/urea(1~10%) solutions. Through studies on the rheological properties and water uptake of the hydrogel, a NaOH/urea(6%) solution was established as being optimum for the synthesis of the cellulose hydrogel containing liquiritin and liquiritigenin. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations of a cross-section of the prepared hydrogel indicated its porosity. In particular, in skin permeation experiments using a Franz diffusion cell, hydrogel containing the licorice flavonoids showed remarkable transdermal permeation compared to the control group. These results indicate that porous cellulose hydrogel is a potential drug delivery system to enhance the skin permeation of licorice flavonoids.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2020

Licorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis) contains several compounds that have been reported to alleviate menopausal symptoms via interacting with estrogen receptors (ERs). The compounds exist mainly in the form of glycosides, which exhibit low bioavailability and function. To bioconvert liquiritin and isoliquiritin, the major estrogenic compounds, to the corresponding deglycosylated liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin, respectively, licorice was fermented with Monascus, which has been demonstrated to deglycosylate other substances. The contents of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin in Monascus-fermented licorice increased by 10.46-fold (from 38.03 μM to 379.75 μM) and 12.50-fold (from 5.53 μM to 69.14 μM), respectively, compared with their contents in non-fermented licorice. Monascus-fermented licorice exhibited 82.5% of the ERβ binding activity of that observed in the positive control (17 β-estradiol), whereas the non-fermented licorice exhibited 54.1% of the binding activity in an in vivo ER binding assay. The increase in the ERβ binding activity was associated with increases in liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin contents. Liquiritigenin acts as a selective ligand for ERβ, which alleviates menopausal symptoms with fewer side effects, such as heart disease and hypertension, compared with a ligand for ERα. In addition, Monascus-fermented licorice contained 731 mg/kg of monacolin K, one of the metabolites produced by Monascus that reduces serum cholesterol. Therefore, Monascus-fermented licorice is a promising material for the prevention and treatment of menopausal syndrome with fewer side effects.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2017

Traditional Korean fermented herbal plants are potential sources of new food that promote health, but they are still produced by yeast, fungi or bacteria fermentation. In the present work, mushroom (Paecilomyces tenuipes and Cordyceps militaris) fungal dongchunghacho were used to fermented Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer (licorice) or mixed with pupa. The pupa were tested as solid substrates for the production of corcycepin, liquiritin, and liquiritigenin. The fermented substrates were analyzed the content of cordycepin, liquiritin, liquiritigenin, and glycirrhizin productivity and inhibitory activity of NO. The cordycepin content of 70% EtOH extract from the fermented mixture of licorice and 50% pupa with C. militaris increased maximum at 33 times. Pupa was very excellent for the production of cordycepin. The liquiritin content was decreased in all the assays inoculated with P. tenuipes and C. militaris dongchunghachos. The liquiritigenin content was higher when fermented with P. tenuipes than C. militaris. The addition of pupa significantly reduced the liquiritin content and glycyrrhizin production. As a result, the liquiritigenin content increased in fermented P. tenuipes and C. militaris, and liquiritin and glycyrrhizin decreased. The inhibition of NO production in the different ethanolic extracts fermented with licorice and pupa was also significantly increased and higher than that of a nonfermented extract in higher polar solvent extracts. The contents of cordycepin and biological active compounds were altered in accordance with the concentration of pupa and fungi. This study provides basic data for use in developing dongchunghacho fungi as a functional food resource.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 2013

Insampaedoksan (IS) is the decoction of medicinal herbs, which was commonly used for anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic in the Korean traditional medicine (KTM). Several studies on improving efficiency or searching new efficiency by fermenting traditional herbal medicines are recently in progress. The bioconversion has been conducted on IS using various bacteria. Liquiritin, ferulic acid, hesperidin, liquiritigenin, and glycyrrhizin in IS before and after fermented IS were simultaneously analyzed. These compounds were qualitatively analyzed and quantitatively analyzed using the HPLC-DAD system. The identifications of liquiritin, ferulic acid, hesperidin, liquiritigenin and glycyrrhizin were achieved by comparing the HPLC retention time ($R_t$) and the UV absorption of five pure compounds in the IS. As a result, the increased constituents were identified to be liquiritin, liquiritigenin and glycyrrhizin, while the decreased constituent was ferulic acid and the constituent of hesperidin was similar to before and after fermentation. Insampeadock-san fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum KFRI 144 exhibited the most remarkable changes in all of fermentation.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.361-366
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• 2011

Traditional herbal medicinal preparation Bojungikki-tang (BJT) is well-known herbal medicine used as tonic. We fermented Bojungikki-tang using nine lactic acid bacteria strains and discovered two remarkably increased compositions from the fermented BJTs using HPLC/DAD analysis. HPLC/DAD-guided fractionation of the increased compositions followed by structure identification using NMR and MS identified liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin. These bioconversion compositions were quantitatively analyzed using HPLC-DAD. Liquiritigenin contents were highest in BJTs fermented with L. amylophilus (1.91 mg/g) and L. fermentum (1.89 mg/g), which were increased by 20-fold compared to BJT (0.09 mg/g). Isoliquiritigenin contents were highest in BJTs in fermented with L. plantarum (0.19 mg/g) and L. fermentum (0.19 mg/g), which were increased by 19-fold compared to BJT (0.01 mg/g).

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.350-356
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the contents of constituents in Sipjundaebo-tang (SJ) and its fermentations (FSJ) with 8 species of lactic acid bacteria. Eight strains of lactic acid bacteria, Lactobacillus casei KFRI129, L. plantarum KFRI 144, L. curvatus KFRI 166, L. hilgardii KFRI 229, L. delbruekil subsp. lactis KFRI 442, L. casei KFRI 692, L. gasseri KCTC 3163, and Bifidobacterium breve KFRI 744, were utilized for the fermentation of Sipjundaebo-tang. As a result we identified three constituents which increased and two constituents which decreased. The increased constituents were isolated by chromatographic techniques and then their structure elucidated using NMR and MS. The decreased constituents were confirmed by comparing standard compounds. These compounds were quantitatively analyzed using the HPLC/DAD system. The increased constituents were identified to be cinnamyl alcohol (1), liquiritigenin (3), and nodakenetin (5), while the decreased constituents were liquiritin (2) and nodakenin (4). Generally, liquiritin (2) and nodakenin (4) were noted as having decreased in fermented Sipjundaebo-tangs (FSJs), while cinnamyl alcohol (1), liquiritigenin (3), and nodakenetin (5) were seen to have increased. Sipjundaebo-tang fermented by L. plantarum KFRI144 exhibited the most remarkable changes in all of fermentations. The eight lactic acid bacteria all demonstrated differing decomposable rates on the five maker compounds in fermented Sipjundaebo-tang (FSJ).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2004

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2008

From the 70% EtOH extract of the roots of Astragalus membranaceus (Leguminosae), eleven flavonoid derivatives and a lignan, were isolated and identified as liquiritigenin (1), daidzein (2), formononetin (3), sophorophenolone (4), calycosin (5), methylnissolin (6), isomucronulatol (7), isomucronulatol 7-O-glucoside (8), methylnissolin 3-O-glucoside (9), calycosin 7-O-glucoside (10), (+)-syringaresinol O-${\beta}$-D-glucoside (11), and isomucronulatol 7,2'-di-O-glucoside (12), by spectroscopic methods. This is the second report of the isoflavonoid derivatives sophorophenolone (4) and isomucronulatol 7,2'-di-O-glucoside (12) from a natural source, as well as the first report of compounds liquiritigenin (1), daidzein (2) and (+)-syringaresinol O-${\beta}$-D-glucoside (11) from the species A. membranaceus.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.200-203
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• 2012

The chromatographic separation of a methanol extract of Prunus mume (Rosaceae) led to the isolation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (1), 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid methyl ester (2), prunasin (3), 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid methyl ester (4), benzyl-O-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside (5), and liquiritigenin-7-O-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside (6). Their structures were determined by 1D, 2D-NMR and MS data analysis as well as by comparison of their data with the published values.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.125-130
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• 2013

Samchulgeonbi-tang (SC) is well-known traditional herbal medicine which is composed of fourteen medicine herbs. SC has been used for the treatment of the chronic gastritis, indigestion, gastric ulcers, gastroptosis and diarrhea disease. The variation in the amount of bioactive components of SC and its fermentation SC with ten Lactobacillus strains were investigated via high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of seven bioactive compounds; paeoniflorin, liquiritin, hesperidin, liquiritigenin, kaempferol, atractylenolide III, magnolol were achieved by comparing their retention times ($t_R$) and UV spectra with those of the standard compounds. In the results, the amount of paeoniflorin and hesperidin were 7.967 mg/g, 7.251 mg/g that were the main compounds in SC. The amounts of liquiritigenin was increased by all ten Lactobacillus strains, except strain 128. Especially, the liquiritigenin amount was highest in SC fermented with strain 145 (0.201 mg/g), which was increased by 158.39% compared to SC (0.081 mg/g). In the fermented SC using strains 344, almost components were increased than non-fermented SC, except paeoniflorin and kaempferol. Thus, these results considered that the strains 145 and 344 are most excellent fermentation strains among the 10 species of fermentation strains.