• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.303-310
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• 2013

Velvet deer antler (VDA) is well known oriental medicine claimed to have tonic activities as improving bone mineral density (BMD), immune-enhancing, rejuvenating and many other medicinal activities. Ossified deer antler (ODA) is bony product produced by over-calcification of deer antler due to late harvesting. The extraction efficiency of ODA by conventional boiling in water must be very poor due to bony nature, hence the reputations for the medicinal efficacies of ODA has been highly under-evaluated compared to that of VDA without any experimental evidences. Employing our new efficient water extraction process ($135^{\circ}C$), the extracts of ODA and VDA were analysed to compare the contents of bioactive components and the potencies of pharmacological activities. The results showed that; 1) The $135^{\circ}C$ extraction (autoclaving) of ODA gave highly increased amount of biomass, 120% more than the conventional extraction by 100-boiling, whereas the same treatment for VDA showed only 15% increased amount of biomass. 2) Feeding the ODA- or VDA-extracts to oophorectomized rats showed very potent BMD-recovering activity. 3) During the ossification of deer antler, the total collagen content was found to be increased by addition of type-1 to pre-existing type-2 collagen, but not replacement of type-2 to type-1 collagen. High titer of peptide hormones like growth hormone and IGF-1 were detected in the ODA- and VDA-extracts and also in the serum of ODA- or VDA-treated oophorectomized animals dose-dependently. Present experimental data will give a conclusion that folkloric poor reputations on ODA must be concerned only with poor extraction efficiency of conventional $100^{\circ}C$ water extraction and not based on the composition of bioactive substances of ODA.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2011

Routinely applicable HPLC assay procedures for the ganglioside content in various deer antler preparations were established through the creation of a UV-absorbing chromophoric substance - trans-${\alpha},{\beta}$-unsaturated-hexadecene-aldehyde - from the sphingosine moiety in ganglioside molecules by two step chemical reactions. In order to guarantee the assay's accuracy and sensitivity, the HPLC-assay procedure adopted internal reference procedures by mixing cis-${\alpha},{\beta}$-unsaturated-hexadecene aldehyde[V] or cis-3-heptadecene- 1,2-diol[IV] to assay samples. The internal reference compound [IV] or [V] was synthesized in our laboratory starting from mannitol-diacetonide through three or four step organic reactions. This new HPLC-assay procedure was successfully applied to deer antler extracts with good dose-dependent calibration curves at the picomole level of gangliosides.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.542-551
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• 2017

The quality characteristics of velvet antlers obtained from Formosan sambar deer (Cervus unicolor Swinhoi) (SDVA), harvested from 63 to 81 d during the velvet antler growth period, were evaluated by investigating the relationships between antioxidant levels; including content, activity, and content/activity ratios, and physical properties; including shear force values, color, and Ca content. The hardness of samples from base velvet antler sections increased, and that the color of these samples tended to become reddish-yellow (redder and more yellow), suggesting that the Ca content in the base section of the sample was not ossified yet. Samples from the upper sections of velvet antler showed higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) content (3.91 to 1.50 mg/mL, 2.53 to 0.90 mg/mL, and 3.95 to 1.58 mg/mL, respectively) than did samples from the middle and base sections (p<0.05). The activity and content/activity ratios of GPX measured in the upper section were also found to be significantly greater than in the middle and base sections (p<0.05). We further observed that the content and activity of GPX was significantly and negatively correlated with Ca content, shear force values, and the content/activity ratio of this antioxidant (p<0.01). The study findings may serve as a reference index for quality evaluations of velvet antlers of Formosan sambar deer in future.