• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.343-349
• /
• 2018

Although drugs such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines are often used for the treatment of insomnia, they are associated with various side effects such as habituations, tolerance and addiction. Alternatively, natural products with minimal unwanted effects have been preferred for the treatment of acute and/or mild insomnia, with additional benefits of overall health-promotion. Basic and clinical researches on the mechanisms of action of natural products have been carried out so far in insomnia treatments. Recent studies have been focusing on diverse chemical components available in natural products, with an interest of developing drugs that can improve sleep duration and quality. In the last 15 years, our co-workers have been actively looking for candidate substances from natural products that can relieve insomnia. This review is, therefore, intended to bring pharmacological data regarding to the effects of natural products on sleep duration and quality, mainly through the activation of $GABA_A$ receptors. It is imperative that phytochemicals will provide useful information during electroencephalography (EEG) analysis and serve as an alternative medications for insomnia patients who are reluctant to use conventional drugs.

• Natural Product Sciences
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.155-161
• /
• 2002

The mistletoe lectins are major active components in the extract of European mistletoe (Viscum album L) that have been widely used in adjuvant chemotherapy of cancer. This study was performed to investigate the antitumor activity of extract of Korean mistletoe (Viscum album var. coloratum) modified with Korean mistletoe lectin (Viscum album var. coloratum agglutinin, VCA). Compared with the results of VCA, survival rate was increased and experimental lung metastasis was reduced by treatment of modified extract (VCM). In addition, the treatment of VCM reduced angiogenesis and VCA-induced toxicity measured by a CAM assay. And VCM inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in vitro in tumor cells originated from tissues which are possible to apply topically without surgery. Taken together, the antitumor activities of VCM-treated group outperformed the activities of the VCA-treated group.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2002

This study was conduction to investigate the effects of natural materials such as $GB_{10}$ chitofarm, chaff charcoal, and chaff charcoal sap, on quality and yield of chinese cabbage, Natural materials were treated on seeds soil, and leaves. The total plant weight, head weight, head length, head width, leaf length, leaf width, and sugar content of chinese cabbage in treatment with natural materials showed significant difference compared with control. The yield of chinese cabbage in $GB_{10}$ soil treatment and 1% $GB_{10}$ leaf treatment was increased 53% compared with control. The total nitrogen $P_2O_5$, $K_2O$, CaO, MgO, $Na_2O$, and Mn in total plant were analyzed. The chemical components were increased in total plant of chinese cabbage treated with natural materials compared with control natural materials increased the quality of chinese cabbage.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.456-462
• /
• 2022

Since natural fibers are highly flammable, it is not easy to make them flame retardant. In this study, a liquid flame retardant based on phytic acid, APTES, and Thiourea, which are flame retardant candidates derived from nature, was prepared and its performance was verified through flame retardant treatment and flame retardancy evaluation of bamboo fibers. When a liquid flame retardant is used, it is possible to treat a large amount of natural fibers with flame retardant treatment. Nine types of flame-retardant treated bamboo fibers were prepared according to the Taguchi design of experiment method. Thereafter, vertical burning test and microcalorimeter test were performed for flame retardancy evaluation, and the surface of natural fibers before and after flame-retardant treatment was compared using scanning electron microscope. The results show that phytic acid has a significant effect on improving the flame retardancy of natural fibers. Through microstructure analysis, it was assumed that the phytic acid helps flame retardant to uniformly adhere to the surface of natural fibers. If such research results are utilized, it is possible to make a large amount of natural fibers high flammability in an eco-friendly way, which is expected to be advantageous for the application of prototypes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
• /
• v.50
• /
• pp.115-126
• /
• 2023

A hydroponics experiment was performed to study the physiological and biochemical changes in Moroccan barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties cultivated under salt stress conditions. Four barley varieties were grown under exposure to three salt concentrations, including 0, 200, and 300 mM NaCl. The ANOVA for both salt stress-sensitive and resistant varieties indicated that salt treatment represented the main source of variability in all studied traits. Salt treatment significantly reduced root and shoot dry weight (RDW and SDW), relative water content (RWC), and chlorophyll content (Chl a, Chl b, and Chl T). However, increases in electrolyte leakage (EL) along with proline and total soluble sugar (TSS) contents were recorded. In addition, large variations in all measured traits were found between varieties. The 'Massine' and 'Laanaceur' varieties displayed relatively higher RDW and SDW values. The 'Amira' and 'Adrar' varieties showed lower RWC values and Chl contents than those of the controls indicating their relative sensitivity to salt stress. Principal component analysis revealed that most of the variation was captured by PC1 (72% of the total variance) which grouped samples into three categories according to salt treatment. Correlation analyses highlighted significant associations between most parameters. Positive relationships were found between RDW, SDW, RWC, Chl content, and soluble proteins contents, while all of these parameters were negatively associated with EL intensity, proline content, and TSS content. The results from this study showed that the 'Massine' and 'Laanaceur' varieties were relatively salt-tolerant. These two salt-tolerant varieties present a good genetic background for breeding of barley varieties showing high salt tolerance.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.15-23
• /
• 2003

Chestnut trees have been used as a dyeing material, which are grow naturally, are cultivated all the area of Korea. So, there is abundant amount of the materials and they have better colorfastness than other natural dyeing materials. But chestnut husk extract is good at silk and wool fabrics, not cotton fabrics. That's why many methods using chestnut extraction for dyeing are being studied. But most of them depend on treatment method with chemical material which doesn't fit with the aim, using natural materials. Therefore in this research, we used protein pre-treatment method which is dyeing chestnut husk extract after treating at cotton fabrics with bean sap. And we studied the effect of dyeability of chestnut husk extract to cotton fabrics. As a result of pre-treatment of bean sap at cotton fabrics, dyeability was increased. Besides laundering fastness, dry cleaning fastness, perspiration fastness and light fastness were almost increased.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.373-382
• /
• 2013

In this study, a biological odor treatment system was proposed to remove odor(foul smell) materials causing several problems in the closed sewage treatment plant. This odor treatment system was composed of a two-step biofilter system in one reactor. The two-step biofilter reactor was constructed with natural purification layer in upper part and artificial purification layer in lower part. The reed grasses of water purification plants were planted in the surface area and mixed porous ceramic media were filled with the lower part of biofilter reactor. By using the above experimental apparatus, the ammonia gas removal efficiency was attained to 98.3 % and the hydrogen sulfide gas removal efficiency was appeared more than 97.7 % which shows more effective than the conventional odor removal process.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.451-457
• /
• 2006

Conjugate heat transfer (CHT) is the simultaneous, coupled heat transfer within a fluid and an adjoining solid, and the interface treatment plays an important role in its analysis, particularly when using unstructured grid system. In the present paper a new solid-fluid interface treatment in CHT analysis is presented and applied to two typical CHT problems, i.e. natural convections in both concentric thick-walled cylinders and cavity with a centered solid body. The present interface treatment for unstructured mesh clearly demonstrates the same accuracy and robustness as that for typical structured mesh.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.427-436
• /
• 2018

The objective of this study was to analyze the concurrent treatment effects of ursolic acid (UA) and low-intensity treadmill exercise and to confirm the effectiveness of UA as an exercise mimetic to safely improve muscle atrophy-related diseases using Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with skeletal muscle atrophy. Significant muscle atrophy was induced in male SD rats through hind limb immobilization using casting for 10 days. The muscle atrophy-induced SD rats were group into four: SED, sedentary; UA, daily intraperitoneal UA injection, 5 mg/kg; EX, low-intensity (10-12 m/min, $0^{\circ}$ grade) treadmill exercise; and UEX, daily intraperitoneal UA injection, 5 mg/kg, and low-intensity (10-12 m/min, $0^{\circ}$ grade) treadmill exercise. After 8 weeks of treatment, endurance capacity was analyzed using a treadmill, and tissues were extracted for analysis of visceral fat mass, body weight, muscle mass, expression of muscle atrophy- and hypertrophy-related genes, and endurance capacity. Although the effects of body weight gain control, muscle mass increase, and endurance capacity improvement were inadequate in the UA group, significant results were confirmed in the UEX group. The UEX group had significantly reduced body weight and visceral fat, significantly improved mass of tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles, and significantly decreased atrophy-related gene expression of MuRF1 and atrogin-1, but did not have significant change in hypertrophy-related gene expression of Akt and mTOR. The endurance capacity was significantly improved in the EX and UEX groups. These data suggest that concurrent treatment with low-intensity exercise and UA is effective for atrophy-related physical dysfunctions.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.279-285
• /
• 2000

Vitamin E-succinate (VES) treatment of U937 human monoblasts induced cells to undergo apoptosis. After 96 h of VES treatment at 10 $\mu$/ml, more than 80% of cells appeared apoptotic. Evidence for apoptosis by VES was based on propidium iodide staining for detection of chromatin condensational fragmentation and electrophoretic DNA ladder formation. Western blot analyses showed a transient increase in Fas and p21 protein levels up to 48 h alter the VES treatment. Protein expression and activity of CDK1 and lamin B degradation were remarkably induced by VES, following the cleavage of caspase-3 after 48 h. The VES-induced apoptosis was found to involve activation of PKC as shown by increases in membrane translocation of PKC$\beat$II and PKC activity. Pretreatment of GF109203X (PKC inhibitor) prior to VES treatment almost completely inhibited the induction of apoptosis as assessed by blockage of VES-induced caspase-3 activity and DNA fragmentation. However, GF109203X h8d no effect on the VES-induced nitric oxide synthesis, which was required for monocvtic differentiation in our previous report (J Cell Sci 111, 435, 1998). Taken together, our data suggest that induction of apoptosis by VES in U937 cells occurs through activation of PKC-$\beat$II resulting in the activation of caspase-3 cascade and is independent of nitric oxide.