• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.1029-1033
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• 1999

Seven fractions were separated by silica gel chromatography from the diethyl ether souble portion of the methanolic extract of the cultured hoelen(Poria cocos Wolf). Three fractions were separated from the Fr.II and Fr.IV by rechromatography, respectively. The most active fraction, Fr.II 3 and Fr.IV 3, were separated to 2 and 4 fractions by preparative HPLC. On the result of antimicrobial test, triterpenoids fractions showed weaker effect than benzoic acid but Fr.II 3 1, Fr.II 3 2 had an excellent antimi crobial activity. Triterpenoids fraction of hoelen(Poria cocos Wolf) showed a high inhibition activity on the growth of lung cancer, ovary cancer, skin cancer, central nerve cancer and rectum cancer cell, especially the activity of Fr.II 3 1 and Fr.II 3 2 was the highest.

• The Korean Journal of Mycology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.218-224
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• 1990

This study was made to observe changes in hemograms of the Sarcoma-180 mouse treated with extracts of Poria cocos and Panax ginseng. The life span of the Sarcoma-180 mouse administered with the mixture of the extract of Panax ginseng with the extract of P. cocos and the extract of P. cocos was extended more than the non-treated group. In the body weight of the Sarcoma-180 mouse, the non-treated group was increased more than the normal group and the groups administered with the mixture of ginseng extract with hoelen extract and hoelen extract. In the numbers of white blood cell especially lymphocyte, the groups administered with the mixture of ginseng extract with hoelen extract and hoelen extract were similar to the normal group, but the non-treated group was decreased. The Hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin in the mice infected with Sarcoma-180 were not significantly different between the group treated with extracts of them and the non-treated group. In the distributions and sizes of white blood cell and platelet in the mice, the group administered with the Hoelen extract was similar to the normal group comparing to the non-treated group.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.1034-1040
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• 1998

The nutritional quality and physiological activity of cultivated hoelen from 13 months to 24 months were examined to compare with natural hoelen. General compositions of hoelen were as follows re spectively; crude protein 1.80~2.50%, crude fat 0.68~1.23%, crude ash 0.12~0.43%, crude fiber 6.30~7.14%, nitrogen free extract 89.25~90.44%. The major free sugar was glucose, and the content of 13 months cultivated hoelen was higher than any other cultivated hoelen. The major fatty acids of hoelen were linoleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid. The ratio of unsaturated fatty acids was 62.62~77.96% and the content was higher in cultivated hoelen than in natural hoelen. The contents of amino acid were high in the order of tyrosine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and serine, and increased as the day of cultivation became longer. The contents of mineral components were higher in the order of Ca, K, Mg and the contents of Na and Ca were higher in natural hoelen than in cultivated hoelen. The contents of pachymic acid and dehydropachymic acid was similar in the natural and cultivated hoelen. On the results of antimicrobial test the ethanol extract showed a stronger effect than water extract, and had an excellent antimicrobial activity on Micrococcus luteus and Escherichia coli. The ethanol extract of hoelen showed comparatively strong electron donating ability. The ethanol extract of hoelen showed a high inhibition activity on the growth of lung cancer, ovary cancer, skin cancer, central nerve cancer and rectum cancer, especially the activity of 19 months cultivated hoelen was the highest. On the above results of nutritional quality and physiological activity of hoelen, it is supposed that the picking date of cultivated hoelen was suitable over than 19 months.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.228-235
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• 2010

This study was performed to investigate the memory enhancing effect of Poria cocos Wolf (Hoelen cum radix) against scopolamine-induced amnesia in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. To induce amnesia, scopolamine (0.75 mg/kg) was intraperitonically injected into SD rats 30 min before starting behavior tests. We have conducted Morris water-maze and Y-maze tests to monitor learning and memory functions. Poria cocos effectively reversed scopolamine-induced memory impairment in SD rats which was represented by an improvement of mean escape latency in water-maze test and spontaneous alterations in Y-maze test. To elucidate possible molecule mechanism, we have measured mRNA as well as protein expression of acetylcholine esterase (AchE), choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAchR), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) using RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. Poria cocos increased mRNA levels of ChAT and mAchR in rat hippocampus compared with those in the scopolamine-injected amnesic group. In addition, protein expression of ChAT and BDNF was also elevated by Poria cocos intake. Furthermore, as an upstrem regulator, the activation of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) was assessed by immunohistochemistry. In this immunohistochemical analysis, the phosphorylation of CREB (p-CREB) was reduced by scopolamine injection, which was restored back to control levels by administration of Poria cocos. These results suggest that Poria cocos may improve memory and cognitive deficit in amnesia and have therapeutic potentials through up-regulation of ChAT, mAchR, and BDNF, which seemed to be mediated by activation of CREB.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2014

This study was investigated to know whether pachymic acid (PA), one of the predominant triterpenoids in Poria cocos (Hoelen) has the sedative-hypnotic effects, and underlying mechanisms are mediated via ${\gamma}$-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic systems. Oral administration of PA markedly suppressed locomotion activity in mice. This compound also prolonged sleeping time, and reduced sleep latency showing synergic effects with muscimol (0.2 mg/kg) in shortening sleep onset and enhancing sleep time induced by pentobarbital, both at the hypnotic (40 mg/kg) and sub-hypnotic (28 mg/kg) doses. Additionally, PA elevated intracellular chloride levels in hypothalamic primary cultured neuronal cells of rats. Moreover, Western blotting quantitative results showed that PA increased the amount of protein level expression of $GAD_{65/67}$ over a broader range of doses. PA increased ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-subunits protein levels, but decreased ${\gamma}$-subunit protein levels in $GABA_A$ receptors. The present experiment provides evidence for the hypnotic effects as PA enhanced pentobarbital-induced sleeping behaviors via $GABA_A$-ergic mechanisms in rodents. Taken together, it is proposed that PA may be useful for the treatment of sleep disturbed subjects with insomnia.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.575-580
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• 1999

In this study, the quality changes of Hoelen was investigated, which were color differences, browning degrees, total phenolic compounds and electron donating abilities to optimize drying condition using hot air and far infrared drying by changing conditions such as temperatures, air velocities and radiation distances. In color values, ${\Delta}b\;value$ decreased with increasing temperatures, while ${\Delta}L$, ${\Delta}a$ and ${\Delta}E\;value$ increased. The browning degrees showed the similar tendency with the color values. Total phenolic components of Hoelen decreased with increasing drying temperature and air velocity, and decreasing radiation distance. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the changes of electron donating abilities (EDA) of Hoelen among drying methods and conditions. As a result, the hot air drying was more effective method than the far infrared was.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.320-324
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• 2012

Osteoporosis is an important public health issue in postmenopausal women. It is a major public health concern and is widely believed that osteoporosis results from imbalance between bone resorption and bone formation. Recently natural products from plants have been extensively studied as therapeutic drugs to treat and prevent various diseases. Hoelen (scientific name, Poria cocos) is a mushroom that is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Hoelen exhibits anti-inflammatory activity and has a protective effect on tumor progression. However, the effect of hoelen in osteoclast differentiation remains unknown. Thus, we examined the effect of hoelen in receptor activator of nuclear factor-${\kappa}B$ ligand (RANKL)-induced osteoclast differentiation. Hoelen significantly inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation in bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) in dose dependent manner without toxicity. Also, we showed that hoelen significantly inhibited the mRNA expression of tartrate-resistant acid phophatase (TRAP) and nuclear factor of activated T cells 1 (NFATc1) in BMMs treated with RANKL. In Particular, hoelen greatly inhibited the protein expression of NFATc1. Ectopic expression of NFATc1 partially reverses hoelen-mediated inhibition of osteoclast differentiation. Taken together, our results demonstrated that hoelen may be useful treatment option of bone-related disease such as osteoporosis, reumatoid arthritis, and periodontitis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.113 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2024

Wolfiporia hoelen (Fr.) Y.C.Dai & V. Papp, commonly known as Poria cocos, is a significant traditional herb used for medicinal and culinary purposes Asian and European countries. Many studies have confirmed that the main components of W. hoelen have pharmacological activities and thatits extract has been shown to affect bone metabolism. This study aimed to the potential of a 50% ethanol extract of the sclerotium of W. hoelen for preventing and treating bone diseases. The ethanol extract was systematically fractionated using n-hexane, dichloromethane, and ethyl acetate. The dichloromethane fraction caused an approximately 29% increase in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) differentiation activity in C2C12 cells compared to the control. Four compounds isolated from this active dichloromethane fraction were identified through instrumental analysis and literature references as 3α-dehydrotrametenolic acid, ergosterol, pachymic acid, and dehydrotumulosic acid. All four compounds were evaluated at increasing concentrations (1, 3, 10, 30, and 100 μM) to determine their effects on ALP differentiation activity in C2C12 cells and RANKL-induced inhibition activity in bone marrow macrophages (BMMs), with a concurrent assessment of cytotoxicity at these concentrations. At a concentration of 3 μM, dehydrotumulosic acid caused a 160% increase in ALP activity, 24% higher than in the BMP-2 control. BMMs treated with dehydrotumulosic acid at concentrations between 10 and 100 μM showed a substantial 15-86% decrease in RANKL-induced inhibition activity compared to the control, with distinct patterns of RANKL inhibition and cytotoxicity observed at 10 μM. These findings suggest that the ethanol extract from the sclerotium of W. hoelen has potential to modulate bone-cell differentiation, while highlighting the possible benefits of dehydrotumulosic acid isolated from the dichloromethane fraction of W. hoelen for preventing and treating osteoporosis.