• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2159-2170
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• 2016

Many plant-pathogenic bacteria are dependent on quorum sensing (QS) to evoke disease. In this study, the population of QS and quorum quenching (QQ) bacteria was analyzed in a consecutive monoculture system of Pseudostellaria heterophylla. The isolated QS strains were identified as Serratia marcescens with SwrIR-type QS system and exhibited a significant increase over the years of monoculture. Only one QQ strain was isolated from newly planted soil sample and was identified as Bacillus thuringiensis, which secreted lactonase to degrade QS signal molecules. Inoculation of S. marcescens to P. heterophylla root could rapidly cause wilt disease, which was alleviated by B. thuringiensis. Furthermore, the expression of lactonase encoded by the aiiA gene in S. marcescens resulted in reduction of its pathogenicity, implying that the toxic effect of S. marcescens on the seedlings was QS-regulated. Meanwhile, excess lactonase in S. marcescens led to reduction in antibacterial substances, exoenzymes, and swarming motility, which might contribute to pathogensis on the seedlings. Root exudates and root tuber extracts of P. heterophylla significantly promoted the growth of S. marcescens, whereas a slight increase of B. thuringiensis was observed in both samples. These results demonstrated that QS-regulated behaviors in S. marcescens mediated by root exudates played an important role in replanting diseases of P. heterophylla.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.458-463
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• 2002

This present study was designed to screen medicinal plants for the treatment of brain diseases such as Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. The inhibitory activity of monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) was investigated in the water extracts of 56 species traditional medicines. Among the tested medicinal plants, E. lathyris, R. palmatum, F. rhynchonphylla, E. caryophyllata, E. pekinensis and H. syriacus were showed the strong inhibitory activity against MAO-B. Therefore, MAO-B inhibitory activity of 6 traditional medicine extracts in the different concentration (2.5, 6.5 and 12.5 ㎍/ml) was determined. The inhibitory effect of MAO-B was detected with dose dependently in 6 traditional plants extracts. E. caryophyllata and R. palmatum were showed the highest inhibitory activity, the MAO-B inhibitory activity at 2.5㎍ of herbal extract being 58% and 52%, respectively. The water extracts of 6 species were tested on antioxidant activity using radical scavenging effects against ABTS/sup +/. The water extracts of R. palmatum, E. caryphyllata, E. pekinensis and H. syriacus were showed strong antioxidant capacity at 20 ㎍ concentration. Among the 56 medicinal plants investigated, the water extracts of R. palmatum and E. caryphyllata were showed significant antioxidant capacity and MAO-B inhibiory activity. Therefore, R. palmatum and E. caryphyllata are expected to ameliorate the clinical symptoms in Parkinson's disease due to significant MAO-B inhibition and radical scavenging effect.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2009

Coptis japonica (C. japonica) is a perennial medicinal plant that has anti-inflammatory activity. C. japonica contains numerous biologically active alkaloids including berberine, palmatine, epi-berberine, and coptisine. The most well-known anti-inflammatory principal in C. japonica is berberine. For example, berberine has been implicated in the inhibition of iNOS induction by cytokines in microglial cells. However, the efficacies of other alkaloids components on microglial activation were not investigated yet. In this study, we investigated the effects of three alkaloids (palmatine, epi-berberine and coptisine) from C. japonica on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced microglial activation. BV2 microglial cells were immunostimulated with LPS and then the production of several inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide (NO), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) were examined as well as the phosphorylation status of Erk1/2 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK). Palmatine and to a lesser extent epi-berberine and coptisine, significantly reduced the release of NO, which was mediated by the inhibition of LPS-stimulated mRNA and protein induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) from BV2 microglia. In addition to NO, palmatine inhibited MMP-9 enzymatic activity and mRNA induction by LPS. Palmatine also inhibited the increase in the LPS-induced MMP-9 promoter activity determined by MMP-9 promoter luciferase reporter assay. LPS stimulation increased Erk1/2 phosphorylation in BV2 cells and these alkaloids inhibited the LPS-induced phosphorylation of Erk1/2. The anti-inflammatory effect of palmatine in LPS-stimulated microglia may suggest the potential use of the alkaloids in the modulation of neuroinflammatory responses, which might be important in the pathophysiological events of several neurological diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and stroke.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.979-985
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• 2004

Effects of green tea, buckwheat, and grape leaf extracts on factors related to blood circulation were studied using rats fed high-cholesterol diet for 4 weeks. Rats were randomly divided into five groups, and plant extracts were orally administered. Green tea extract increased bleeding time in rat tails, suggesting it could prevent platelet aggregation. Administration of green tea, buckwheat, and grape leaf extracts decreased total cholesterol level in liver. Grape leaf extracts decreased thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances in plasma, whereas buckwheat and grape leaf extracts decreased the substances in liver. These results showed extracts of green tea, buckwheat, and grape leaf were effective for improving lipid composition in blood and liver and inhibiting lipid peroxidation in animal tissue, suggesting they may have potential to prevent cardiovascular diseases.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.321-324
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• 2004

Smoke rods were prepared for 2 insecticides and 5 fungicides using powdered rice chaff as a combustible carrier, and their burning characteristics were investigated. The distribution of active ingredient was investigated after the application of the granular smoke generator containing fenarimol in the connected vinyl plastic house growing cucumber. The protective effects of fungicide smoke generators were evaluated against cucumber gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) and tomato late blight (Phytophthora infestans), and compared with commercial wettable powders. Smoke rods containing powdered rice chaff showed high smoking rates of AI that were higher than commercial smoke pellets. The deposition of fenarimol on the ground of vinyl plastic house was $26.2{\pm}7.7\;ng/cm^2$ when averaged from 9 sites, and application uniformity was found. Also, the protective effects of 5 fungicidal smoke rods against plant diseases were so similar to the commercial wettable powders with no phytotoxicity that smoke rod formulations containing rice chaff as a combustible carrier could be used as an effective formulation for pesticides.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1557-1562
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• 2005

A mechanism of hair cell damage caused by noise and ototoxic agents is mediated through generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is known that most of animals have defense systems to protect against ROS, and the cochlea of inner ear in animals also has ROS defense systems including several antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GR), and glutathione (GSH), which efficiently detoxifying ROS generated under normal condition. Steamed roots of Rehmannia glutinosa have been traditionally used in Oriental medicine for the treatment of auditory disease such as tinnitus, vertigo, and hearing loss as well as inflammatory diseases, hectic fever, night sweat, and headache. In the present study, we showed that the ethanol extract from steamed roots of R. giutinosa (ESRG) increased the antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, CAT, GPX, and GR activities and GSH level in HEI-OC1 auditory cells. This extract itself did not show any significant cytotoxicity up to $50{\mu}g/ml$. Our results further support the view that ESRG is promising sources of potential antioxidants. Future studies will be aimed at investigating the effects of ESRG on the regulation of cellular mechanisms and isolating and identifying the substances responsible for the regulation of antioxidant enzyme system from the plant extracts.

• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-40
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• 2014

Several bacteria are known as the causal agents of diseases of the cultivated button mushroom(Agaricus bisporus) and oyster mushroom(Pleurotus ostreatus). Pseudomonas tolaasii is the causal agent of brown blotch disease of commercial mushrooms. Pseudomonas sp. HC1 is a potent biological control agent to control brown blotch disease caused by Pseudomonas tolaasii. This can markedly reduce the level of extracellular toxins (i.e., tolaasins) produced by Pseudomonas tolaasii, the most destructive pathogen of cultivated mushrooms. To define the optimum conditions for the mass production of the Pseudomonas sp. HC1, we have investigated optimum culture conditions and effects of various nutrient source on the bacterial growth. The optimum initial pH and temperature were determined as pH 5.0 and $20^{\circ}C$, respectively. The optimal culture medium for the growth of tolaasin inhibitor bacterium was determined as follows: 0.9% dextrin, 1.5% yest extract, 0.5% $(NH_4)_2HPO_4$, 4mM $FeCl_3$, and 3.0% cysteine.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.555-562
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• 2018

Swine influenza virus (SIV) causes one of the most common diseases of the pig population, and its subtypes are determined by hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Recently, the SIV subtype diagnosis has been developed. The method using antigen-antibody reaction rather than PCR was mainly used because of the large change in the ribonucleotide sequences of SIV. Here, we have developed 10 diagnostic primer sets through multi-nucleotide sequences alignment of spreaded SIV since 2008 in Korea and then optimized the reaction of the one-step RT-PCR for rapid determination of SIV subtype. In addition, specific primers were designed to early determine the pandemic SIV by detecting unique M sequences proven in highly infectious and virulent subtypes of the influenza H1N1 (pH1N1). Here, some of the SIVs spread in Korea from 2008 to 2014 have been tested to determine the subtypes and pandemic potential of SIV. All diagnostic primer sets were found to be able to accurately determine the SIV subtype and to detect the pandemic SIV. In conclusion, it was confirmed that the optimized one-step RT-PCR analysis using these primer sets is useful for rapid diagnosis of SIV subtypes. These results can be used for development of SIV subtype diagnostic kit to early detect before virulent SIV spreads do.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.31 no.3 s.52
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• pp.273-277
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• 2005

This study was performed to develop new cosmeceutical agents with sebosuppressive activity from native plant extracts in Korea. Inhibitory efforts of the extracts on $5{\alpha}-reductase$ (5-AR) were evaluated by enzyme kinetics analysis using UV-spectrophotometric method. Two kinds of enzyme suspensions as 5-AR sources were prepared from rat liver tissue and cultured hSG cells. The sebosuppressive effects were determined by measuring the total lipid quantity produced in cultured hSG cells after incubation with the extracts. As a result, Pinus thunbergii extracts showed the most potent 5-AR inhibitory effects. Its $K_i$ values were 0.0002% and 0.0014% for rat liver 5-AR and human sebaceous gland 5-AR, respectively. Addition of Pinus thunberii extract to hSG cells showed 48% reduction in total lipid production at 0.005% concentration. In conclusion, Pinus thunbergii extracts can be used as a cosmeceutical agent to regulate sebum production and to alleviate the sebum-involved skin diseases, such as acne and seborrheic dermatitis.

• The Journal of Dong Guk Oriental Medicine
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• v.10
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• pp.161-175
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• 2008

The '$\bar{A}yurveda$', Buddhistic medicine, and the present of traditional medicine can be summed up as thus. 1. The '$\bar{A}yurveda$' is a transliteration of the Sanskrit Ayur - veda and is a compound of the words 'Ayus(life)' and 'Veda(knowledge)' and means "The study of life", which means the preservation of health and the understanding and curing of diseases. 2. The '$\bar{A}yurveda$', which originated from ancient experience, was recorded in Sanskrit, which was a theorization of knowledge, and also was written in verses to make memorizing easy, and made medicine the exclusive possession of the Brahmin. The first annotations were 1060 for the "Charaka", 1200 for the "Sushruta", 1150 for the "Ashtanga Sangraha samhita", and 1100 for the "Nidana". The use of various mineral medicines in the "Charaka" or the use of mercury as internal medicine in the "Ashtanga Sangraha samhita", and the palpation of the pulse for diagnosing in the '$\bar{A}yurveda$' and XiZhang' medicine are similar to TCM's pulse diagnostics. The coexistence with Arabian 'Unani' medicine, compromise with western medicine and the reactionism trend restored the '$\bar{A}yurveda$ today. 3. When we look at the present of the education and research of the '$\bar{A}yurveda$', after gaining independence from England, India set up a modern education system of the '$\bar{A}yurveda$' and set it on an equal position with western medicine. According to the 1976 study the '$\bar{A}yurveda$' is taught in a 5 and a half year university curriculum, and the main textbooks are the Charaka - samhita("開羅迦集" - internal medicine), Sushruta-samhita("妙聞集", surgery), Madhavanidana(diagnostics), 3 volumes of Bhavaprakasa(pharmacology internal medicine, mineral medicine}, Rajanighantu (pharmacology), $Vrks\bar{A}yurveda$(plant therapy), Mahabharata(military medicine), Arthasastra(forensic medicine, toxicology) Kamasastra(science of intercourse), etc. in 10 subjects and there are 232227 certified doctors that have graduated from the 95 colleges and passed the exams.