• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 2014

Biochar (BC) from biomass pyrolysis is a carbonaceous material that has been used to remove various contaminants in the environment. The eliminatory action for burcucumber (Sicyos angulatus L.) as an invasive plant is being consistently carried out because of its harmfulness and ecosystem disturbance. In this study, burcucumber biomass was converted into BCs at different pyrolysis temperatures of 300 and $700^{\circ}C$ under a limited oxygen condition. Produced BCs were characterized and investigated to ensure its efficiency on antibiotics' removal in water. The adsorption experiment was performed using two different types of antibiotics, tetracycline (TC) and sulfamethazine (SMZ). For the BC pyrolyzed at a high temperature ($700^{\circ}C$), the values of pH, electrical conductivity, and the contents of ash and carbon increased whereas the yield, mobile matter, molar ratios of H/C and O/C, and functional groups decreased. Results showed that the efficiency of BCs on antibiotics' removal increased as pyrolysis temperature increased from 300 to $700^{\circ}C$ (38 to 99% for TC and 6 to 35% for SMZ). The reaction of ${\pi}-{\pi}$ EDA (electron-donor-acceptor) might be involved in antibiotics' adsorption to BCs. BC has potential to be a superior antibiotics' adsorbent with environmental benefit by recycling of waste/invasive biomass.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.371-379
• /
• 2012

This study was designed to explore new nutraceutical and cosmetic resources possessing biological activities from the plant kingdom. To fulfill this purpose, we analyzed the anti-oxidative, anti-melanogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities of Zanthoxylum schinifolium extract (ZSE) and its solvent fractions using in vitro assays and cell culture model systems. Three kinds of ZSE treated with methanol, ethanol, and water exhibited potent anti-oxidative activities through DPPH radical scavenging capacity, and inhibited in vitro DOPA oxidation. Furthermore, Z. schinifolium methanol extract (ZSME) inhibited the ${\alpha}$-melanocyte stimulating hormone, which induces melanin contents in B16F10 cells. Its anti-melanogenic activity originates from the inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme activity and melanogenesis related protein expression. Moreover, lipopolysaccharide induced nitric oxide production in the RAW 264.7 cell line was also ameliorated by ZSME treatment in a dose dependent manner. Among the four solvent fractions of ZSME treated with dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water, three fractions, except water, showed significant anti-melanogenic and anti-inflammatory activities. Taken together, these results provide important new insights into Z. schinifolium, indicating that it possesses numerous biological activities such as anti-oxidative, anti-melanogenic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Therefore, it may well serve as a promising material in the field of nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.36 no.7
• /
• pp.514-520
• /
• 2014

In this study, the production potential of alternative coagulant ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$ solution) having the identical coagulation activity with respect to the commercial coagulant was investigated. The raw material of alternative coagulant was a spent catalyst including aluminium (waste activated alumina) generated in the manufacturing process of the polymer. The alternative coagulant was produced through a series of processes: 1) intense heat and grinding, 2) chemical polymerization and substitution with $H_2SO_4$ solution, 3) dissolution and dilution and 4) settling and separation. To determine the optimal operating conditions in the lab-scale autoclave and dissolver, the content of $Al_2O_3$ in alternative coagulant was analyzed according to changes of the purity of sulfuric acid, reaction temperature, injection ratio of sulfuric acid and water in the dissolver. The results showed that the alternative coagulant having the $Al_2O_3$ content of 7~8% was produced under the optimal conditions such as $H_2SO_4$ purity of 50%, reaction temperature of $120^{\circ}C$, injection ratio of $H_2SO_4$ of 5 times and injection ratio of water of 2.3 times in dissolver. In order to evaluate the coagulation activity of the alternative coagulant, the Jar-test was conducted to the effluent in aerobic reactor. As a result, in both cases of Al/P mole of 1.5 and 2.0, the coagulation activity of the alternative coagulant was higher than that of the existing commercial coagulant. When the production costs were compared between the alternative and commercial coagulant through economic analysis, the production cost reduction of about 50% was available in the case of the alternative coagulant. In addition, it was identified that the alternative coagulant could be applied at field wastewater treatment plant without environmental problem through ecological toxicity testing.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.235-242
• /
• 2017

In this study, we evaluated the polyphenol content, flavonoid content, antioxidant and biological of 70% EtOH extract and its fractions (dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and water) of the plant Chrysanthemum indicum L. (CI) belonging to family chrysanthemum. antioxidant activity was determined 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2'-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS), and superoxide scavenging activity. The biological activity tests included measurement of ${\alpha}$-glucosidase and PTP1B. The results show that content of polyphenol and flavonoid in 70% EtOH of CI 30.20 mg and 31.58 mg, respectively. Among the different samples, ethyl acetate (EA) fraction showed the highest level of polyphenol (87.87 mg) and flavonoid (65.12 mg). The DPPH, ABTS and superoxide dismutase(SOD) antioxidant assay of EA fraction showed 93.84%, 93.38% and 84.68% inhibition respectively. The EA fraction also showed the highest antioxidant activity compared to 70% EtOH extract and other fractions. EA fraction ($20{\mu}g/mL$) showed the highest 30.29% and 99.24%, respectively compared to other samples. The results of this study show that the EA fraction contained more antioxidant and antidiabetic components than 70% EtOH extract and other fractions. In conclusion, we believe that CI may be useful natural antioxidant and functional material.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.551-556
• /
• 2012

The database for the oriental medicine had been existed in documentation in past times and it has been developed to the database type for random accesses in the information society. However, the aspects of the database are not so diversified and the database for the bio herbal material exists in widened type dictionary style. It is a situation that the database which handles the in-depth raw herbal medicines is not sufficient in its quantity and quality. Korean wild grape is a deciduous plant categorized into the Vitaceae and it was found experimentally that it has various medical effects. It is one of the medical materials with higher potentiality of academic study and commercialization recently because it has a bigger possibility to be applied into diverse industrial fields including the medical product for health, food and beauty. We constituted the cooperative system among the Muju cluster business group for Korean mountain wild grapes, Physiology Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine and Medical Classics Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine with a view to focusing on such potentiality and a database for Korean wild grapes was made a touchstone for establishing the in-depth database for the single bio medical materials. First of all, the literatures based on the North East Asia in ancient times had been categorized into the classical literature (Korean literature published by government organization, Korean classical literature, Chinese classical literature and classical literature fro Korean and Chinese oriental medicine) and modern literature (Modern literature for oriental medicine, modern literature for domestic and foreign herbal medicine) to cover the eastern and western research records and writings related to Korean wild grapes and the text-mining work has been performed through the cooperation system with the Medical Classics Laboratory in Kyung Hee University Oriental Medicine. First of all, the data for the experiment and theory for Korean wild grape were collected for the Medline database controlled by the Parliament Library of USA to arrange the domestic and foreign theses with topic for Korean wild grapes and the network hyperlink function and down load function were mounted for self-thesis searching function and active view based on the collected data. The thesis searching function provides various auxiliary functions and the searching is available according to the diverse searching/queries such as the name of sub species of Korean wild grape, the logical intersection index for the active ingredients, efficacy and elements. It was constituted for the researchers who design the Korean wild grape study to design of easier experiment. In addition, the data related to the patents for Korean wild grape which were collected from European Patent Office in response to the commercialization possibility and the system available for searching and view was established in the same viewpoint. Perl was used for the query programming and MS-SQL for database establishment and management in the designing of this database. Currently, the data is available for free use and the address is as follows. http://163.180.41.43:8011/index.html

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.15-24
• /
• 2019

The study was compared for soil chemical and microbial properties as well as growth of the cherry tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme) plants environmentally friendly gown for 3 years and 5 years, which had been fertigated with homemade liquid fertilizer (LF) with indigenous microorganism as an additional fertilizer. Treatment included LF with indigenous microorganism for 3 years (3-year IM-LF) and for 5 years (5-year IM-LF), with an effective microorganism for 10 years (EM-LF), which had been applied with 1,000 times of dilution in the farmhouse. IM-LF and EM-LF materials had increased pH pattern for 16 weeks, in particular for increase of 1.2 for EM-LF. IM-LF material contained slightly higher EC but similar level of 0.2 dS/m to EM-LF. For a pot experiment in the greenhouse, IM-LF treatment increased root dry weight of the cherry tomato plants. In the farmhouse experiment, IM-LF treatment increased to 7.5 of soil pH and 8.4 dS/m of EC, indicating high salt accumulation. EM-LF treatment increased to 62 g/kg of soil OM, which would have affected concentrations of macro essential nutrients, including T-N in the soil. However, the optimum soil chemical levels for growth of cherry tomato plants were observed on the IM-LF plots. EM-LF treatment increased number of bacteria and actinobacteria in the soil. EM-LF treatment increased concentrations of macro essential nutrients in the plants, except for P, with similar nutrient concentrations observed between 3-year IM-LF and 5-year IM-LF-treated plants. Leaf SPAD and PS II levels decreased in the plants treated with 3-year IM-LF. EM-LF treatment increased leaf width and length, number of leaves, canopy area, plant height, and stem diameter in the mid-term stage of growth, which were not significantly different between the treatments. EM-LF treated-plants had two times higher leaf dry weight than those of values observed on the IM-LF plants, which was the opposite result observed on the number of fruit.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.216-223
• /
• 2014

Curcuma longa L. (CL) is a well known traditional medicinal plant that is also used in curries and mustards as a coloring and flavoring agent. However, CL is not usually used as a food source due to its bitter taste. We investigated the immunomodulatory effect of CL fermented by Aspergillus oryzae (FCL) on RAW 264.7 cells. FCL was extracted with cold water (CW), hot water (HW), 20% ethanol (20% EtOH) and 80% ethanol (80% EtOH), after which its effects on phagocytic activity, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-${\alpha}$), nitric oxide (NO) production, natural killer (NK) cell activity and mRNA expression of LP-BM5 eco were investigated. Phagocytic activity was increased in HW and 20% EtOH when compared to the control. The secretion of nitric oxide (NO) from RAW 264.7 cells did not change significantly relative to the control. However, TNF-${\alpha}$ was significantly increased by the addition of FCL extracts. Moreover, FCL 20% ethanol extract showed a four fold increase in NK cell cytotoxity relative to the control group. Finally, we observed suppressed mRNA expression of LP-BM5 eco in FCL extracts, especially in the 20% ethanol extracts group. These results indicate that the FCL extracts can be used as a functional material due to their effective immunomodulating activities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.97 no.3
• /
• pp.215-220
• /
• 2008

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the applications of plant-based extracts to both cosmetic and medicinal industries. The objective of this study was to investigate the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect of P. rigida extracts by water and ethyl acetate. Anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial effect of P. rigida extracts by water and EtOAc were investigated by using nitrite scavenging ability, nitric oxide production and anti-microbial ability. In the test of nitrite scavenging ability, P. rigida extracts by water and EtOAc showed 88.7% and 99% at 100 ppm concentration, respectively. The cell viability was measured using the MTT assay at 24 hours after P. rigida extracts as shown in over 80%. Anti-inflammatory effect was examined in LPS stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. NO productions in LPS and P. rigida extracts stimulated group were decreased in a concentration and were dependent on time as compared with LPS stimulated. The water extracts showed the highest inhibition at the 100 ppm concentration. In anti-microbial activity test, the water extract with 3.0 mg/disc resulted in the clear zone of 14 mm, and ethyl acetate with that of 15 mm for Staphylococcus aureus. However, P. rigida extracts didn't show any growth inhibitory effect on Esherichia coli. These results indicate that the extracts of P. rigida have anti-inflammatory activities as a cosmeceuticals.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.45 no.5
• /
• pp.14-28
• /
• 2017

Mt. Seunghak's Miscanthus sinensis community is not only a landscape resource in terms of cultural services within the Ecosystem Services but also a site that is visited by many mountaineers in autumn. As the current Miscanthus sinensis community has been experiencing a rapid decline due to Korean forest succession characteristics, ongoing artificial management is thought to be needed for landscape resource use. The purpose of this study was to determine growth environment characteristics and the cause of the rapid decline of the Miscanthus sinensis community in Mt. Seunghak, which is located inside a large city with a large scale and outstanding accessibility. As the Miscanthus sinensis community is the representative early vegetation that appears temporarily in dry, barren soil, the Miscanthus sinensis community in Korean forest succession tends to be unsustainable. As the current soil on Mt. Seunghak is inappropriately fertile for the Miscanthus sinensis community, other wetland woody plant communities are anticipated to succeed it. If Miscanthus sinensis community maintenance is needed for Miscanthus sinensis landscape scenery, various alternatives apart from overall Miscanthus sinensis community maintenance should be determined for cost-effective management. For example, while many byways toward the inside of the Miscanthus sinensis community have affected the Miscanthus sinensis community growth environment, the installation of wooden fences and ropes has been a control in approach. As a result of this positive effect, many byways toward the inside of Miscanthus sinensis community have been restored naturally. Through viewable range analysis, as good scenery sites on the observatory have a good viewable range on the main trail as well, if these scenery sites are intensively managed, effective Miscanthus sinensis ccommunity management will be done despite maintenance budget cutbacks. This study is expected to be used as a basic material regarding the alternatives for a sustained Miscanthus sinensis community and the possibility of cultivating other growth in poor soils of fallow fields and unused land.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.89-99
• /
• 2005

The golf courses more than about 200 are operating in Korea. From the golf courses, a great amount of turfgrass clippings tend to increase, steadily. Materials used in the experiment were Creeping Bentgrass(CB), Kentucky Bluegrass(KB), Korean Lawngrass(KL), rice bran and composted chicken drop. Treatments are CB, KB, and KL. The temperature during the composting of all treatments increased rapidly and reached at the highest temperature($57.9^{\circ}C$, $67.8^{\circ}C$, $74.3^{\circ}C$) within 20 days, and then stabilized to the range of $35.2{\sim}41.6^{\circ}C$ at the 30th day. The pH values of all treatments decreased on the first day. However, they were increased rapidly after three days and decreased again on 10~20 days. The pH values of all treatments at the final day were stabilized to the low alkali levels. The contents of total carbon during the period of composting tend to decrease and total nitrogen was increased for factor of reduction of volume. CEC value of all treatments during the period of composting tends to increase. The round paper chromatogram of extracted solution of KL sample was the sharpest and clearest among all treatments. The G.I. values of CB, KB, and KL in 30th day of composting were about 95.1, 77.7, and 98.7 in germination test using chinese cabbage, respectively. Conclusively, all turfgrass clippings used in this experiment were composted well, suitable as composting products standardized by KSC. The maturity of the final compost samples is best in KL, followed by CB and KB treatments. The turfgrass compost can contribute to the plant cultivation for environment-friendly farm, and the results of this study can become the basic data of turfgrass clippings compost. Further research on the mixing ratio of each material is required to produce compost of good quality.