• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.364-374
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• 2013

Monacolin K and yellow pigment, produced by Monascus sp., have each been proven to be beneficial compounds as antihypercholesterolemic and anti-inflammation agents, respectively. However, citrinin, a human toxic substance, was also synthesized in this fungus. In this research, solidstate fermentation of M. purpureus TISTR 3541 was optimized by statistical methodology to obtain a high production of monacolin K and yellow pigment along with a low level of citrinin. Fractional factorial design was applied in this study to identify the significant factors. Among the 13 variables, five parameters (i.e., glycerol, methionine, sodium nitrate, cultivation time, and temperature) influencing monacolin K, yellow pigment, and citrinin production were identified. A central composite design was further employed to investigate the optimum level of these five factors. The maximum production of monacolin K and yellow pigment of 5,900 mg/kg and 1,700 units/g, respectively, and the minimum citrinin concentration of 0.26 mg/kg were achieved in the medium containing 2% glycerol, 0.14% methionine, and 0.01% sodium nitrate at $25^{\circ}C$ for 16 days of cultivation. The yields of monacolin K and yellow pigment were about 3 and 1.5 times higher than the basal medium, respectively, whereas citrinin was dramatically reduced by 36 times.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.167-172
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• 1980

Yellow pigments were extracted with mixture of 60% -ethanol and petroleum ether (1 : 2) by method of partition chromatography in petroleum ether phase. The absorption curve of yellow pigments solution exhibits maximum peak at wave length range of 394-403um. By thin layer chromatography yellow pigments preparation were found to consists of monascin(yellow), monascidin A (pale yellow) and one unknown (orange-yellow) compound. Isolated fat soluble yellow pigments were changed to water soluble by N-KOH (adjust pH 9). The resulted product obtained were yellow pigments of K-salt complex.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 1978.10a
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• pp.207.1-207
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• 1978

이미 발표한바 있는 Monascous sp.의 색소 배양액으로부터 식품응용에 적용하기 위한 기초적 자료를 얻기 위하여 조색소 분말의 생산, 물리적 성상과 생리적 성질을 검토하였다. 본 실험은 발효액으로부터 60％ alcohol과 pe-troleum ether로 추출하여 alcohol층에서 적색계, petroleum ether층에서 황색계 색소를 얻었으며, 생산된 적색계 조색소는 5종의 색소물질이 복합되어 있었고 pH 3에서 9까지 안정하였으며 O.D 495∼500nm에서 흡수극대를 나타내었다. 적색 조색소분말(색소 1000mcg/mg 기준 때)과 색소액은 시험 시료농도에서 bio-activity는 없었으며 급성 독소시험은 positive 용혈반응 negative였다.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2014

In previous work, we fermented coffee beans using solid-state culture with various fungal mycelia to enhance the physiological activity of the coffee. The coffee fermented with Monascus sp. showed a higher physiological activity than non-fermented coffee or other coffees fermented with mushroom mycelium. The aim of this study was to characterize the various fermented coffees with respect to their area of cultivation and their variety using Monascus purpureus (MP) mycelium solid-state culture. Thirty types of green coffee beans, which varied in terms of their cultivation area or variety, were purchased from different suppliers and fermented with MP under optimal conditions. Each MP-fermented coffee was medium roasted and extracted further using hot water (HW) under the same conditions. Of the HW extracts, those derived from MP-Mandheling coffees had the highest yield (13.6-15.5%), and MP-Robusta coffee showed a significantly higher polyphenolic content (3.03 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 mg) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) free radical scavenging activity (27.11 mg ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity/100 mg). Furthermore, in comparison to other MP-fermented coffees at $1,000{\mu}g/mL$, MP-Robusta coffee showed not only the most effective inhibition of tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (TNF-${\alpha}$) production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells (67.1% of that in LPS-stimulated control cells), but also an effective inhibition of lipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipose cells (22.2% of that in differentiated control cells). In conclusion, these results suggest that Vietnam Robusta coffee beans solid-state fermented with MP mycelium are amenable to industrial applications as a functional coffee beverage or material.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.205.3-205
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• 2005

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.519-524
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• 2008

Monacolin-K is a strong anti-hypercholesterolemic agent produced by Monascus sp. via polyketide pathway. High-yielding mutants of monacolin-K were developed through rational screening strategies adopted based on understanding of monacolin-K biosynthetic pathway. Through the experiments for investigating various amino acids as putative precursors for the monacolin-K biosynthesis, it was found that production level of monacolin-K was remarkably increased when optimum amount of cysteine was supplemented into the production medium. We suggested that these phenomena might be related to the special roles of SAM (S-adenosyl methionine), a putative methyl group donor in the biosynthetic pathway of monacolin-K, demonstrating close interrelationship between SAM-synthesizing primary metabolism and monacolin-K synthesizing secondary metabolism. Namely, increase in the intracellular amount of SAM derived from the putative precursor, cysteine which was extracellularly supplemented into the production medium might contribute to the significant enhancement in the monacolin-K biosynthetic capability of the highly mutated producers. On the basis of these assumptions derived from the above fermentation results, we decided to construct efficient expression vectors harboring SAM synthetase gene (metK) cloned from A. nidulans, with the hope that increased intracellular level of SAM could lead to further enhancement in the monacolin-K production through overcoming a rate-limiting step associated with monacolin-K biosynthesis. Hence, in order to overcome the plausible rate-limiting step associated with monacolin-K biosynthesis by increasing intracellular level of SAM, we transformed the producer mutants with an efficient expression vector harboring gpdA promoter of the producer microorganism, and metK gene. Notably, from the resulting various transformants, we were able to screen a very high-yielding transformant which showed approximately 3.3 fold higher monacolin-K productivity than the parallel nontransformed mutants in shake flask cultures performed under the identical fermentation conditions.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.356-366
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• 2018

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is one of the most common and economically important pests of stored cereal products worldwide. Furthermore, these beetles can act as vectors for several fungal post-harvest diseases. In this study, we collected T. castaneum from 49 rice processing complexes (RPCs) nationwide during 2016-2017 and identified contaminating fungal species on the surface of the beetles. Five beetles from each region were placed on potato dextrose agar media or Fusarium selection media after wet processing with 100% relative humidity at $27^{\circ}C$ for one week. A total of 142 fungal isolates were thus collected. By sequence analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region, 23 fungal genera including one unidentified taxon were found to be associated with T. castaneum. The genus Aspergillus spp. (28.9%) was the most frequently present, followed by Cladosporium spp. (12.0%), Hyphopichia burtonii (9.2%), Penicillium spp. (8.5%), Mucor spp. (6.3%), Rhizopus spp. (5.6%), Cephaliophora spp. (3.5%), Alternaria alternata (2.8%) and Monascus sp. (2.8%). Less commonly identified were genera Fusarium, Nigrospora, Beauveria, Chaetomium, Coprinellus, Irpex, Lichtheimia, Trichoderma, Byssochlamys, Cochliobolus, Cunninghamella, Mortierella, Polyporales, Rhizomucor and Talaromyces. Among the isolates, two known mycotoxin-producing fungi, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium spp. were also identified. This result is consistent with previous studies that surveyed fungal and mycotoxin contamination in rice from RPCs. Our study indicates that the storage pest, T. castaneum, would play an important role in spreading fungal contaminants and consequently increasing mycotoxin contamination in stored rice.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.206-214
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• 2005

The health function food law has been carried into effect from January 31, 2004 just after the proposal of 'a draft of a proposed law concerning the health function foods for the promotion of a nation health' on November 29, 2000 in Korea. After enforcement of health functional food law, there have been difficult market penetration with overall stagnancy of business activities and the current of health functional food within the country divided two groups. In standardized health functional foods the present condition, nutrition supplementary products (938 items) and red ginseng products (351 items) are prevalent and total 32 products are registered containing lactobacilli (297 items), glucosamine (295 items), ginseng (182 items), yeast(136 items) so on. In 2005, five products (products containing green tea extract, soybean protein, plant sterol, fructooligo sugar and Monascus sp. products are newly notified and raw material or component of total 21 products containing xylitol, teanin extract, sardine peptide are recognized as individual authorized health functional foods. Efficacies of ginseng are studied in many-sided researches but benefits of the ginseng in the health functional food law limited to 3 items (staminaresume, immune enhancement, nourishment robustness). To enlarge functionalities of ginseng it needs raw material and ingredient approval through data application to Korea Food and Drug Administration and this procedure acts as barrier of the functional food development in the ginseng industry. It is necessary to develop the authorized health functional foods for leading health functional food market in the future.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.807-819
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• 2012

To evaluate the functional characteristic and availability for drinking of the fermented Smilax china leaf tea by using different microbial species, various fermented leaf tea was prepared by non-fermentation (C), or the fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S), Bacillus sp. (B), Bifidobacterium bifidus (L), Monascus pilosus (M) and Aspergilus oryzae (A), and sensory and antioxidant parameter of each brewed tea was observed. The color of the A tea was red, but the other teas were yellow in color. Furthermore, the aesthetic quality of the A and M tea was 3.95 and 3.30 point, respectively, and other teas (2.55~2.28) were similar to that of the C tea. TP of fermented tea water extract was lower than that of the C, although TF was not significantly different between the fermented and non-fermented tea. Especially, TF of the A tea was significantly lower than those of the other teas. The range of EDA ($1mg/m{\ell}$) of water and ethanol extracts of tea C and the fermented teas was 19.25~22.48%; however, tea A was only 8.04~12.49%. In addition, FRAP, FICA and LPOIA of teas were not significantly different between the fermented and non-fermented teas. On the other hand, XOIA and AOIA of tea ethanol extracts were slightly higher than those of water extracts. XOIA of water extract derived from the teas was 4.83~9.20%, while ethanol extract of these was 9.00~19.00%. However, XOIA of B and L teas water extract was not detected. Furthermore, AOIA of fermented tea water extract (30.17~48.52%) were lower than those of ethanol extract (44.09~66.93%). In this study, interestingly, antioxidant parameters, such as FRAP, FICA, LPOIA and AOIA, of the A tea water extract (0.1%) was higher than that of the other tea in spite of high decreasing rate in the contents of TP and TF. Therefore, above results imply the possibility of fermented Smilax china leaf tea as a functional food.