• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Postharvest Science and Technology of Agricultural Products Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.22-39
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• 2003

Biological activity of phenolic compounds in seeds and leaves of safflower (Carthamu tinctorius L.) were evaluated using several in vitro and in vivo assays. Six phenolic constituents were isolated from the seeds and identified as N-feruloylserotonia, N- (p-coumaroyl)serotonin, matairesinol, 8′-hydroxyarctigenin, acacetin 7-O-$\beta$-D-glucoside (tilianine) and acacetin. Six phenolic compounds exhibited considerable antioxidative activity, and especially two serotonins showed potent DPPH radical scavenging activity and antiperoxidative activity against rat liver microsomal lipid peroxidation induced by the hydroxyl radical generated via a Fenton-type reaction. Additionally, six phenolic compounds possessed comparable cytotoxicity against three cancer cells, Hela cell, MCF-7 and HepG2 cell, and particularly acacetin and its glycosides had the most potent cytotoxicity. Moreover, we found that feeding safflower seeds attenuated bone loss, and lowered levels of plasma and liver lipids in ovariectomized rats. Serotonins, lignans and flavones stimulated proliferation of the osteoblast-like cells in a dose-dependent manner (10$^{-15}$ ~10$^{-6}$ M), as potently as E$_2$ (17$\beta$-estradiol). Particularly, serotonins were mainly responsible for bone-protecting and lipid lowering effects in ovariectomized rats. Meanwhile, eight flavonoids, including a novel quercetin-7-O-(6"-O-acetyl)-$\beta$-D-glucopyranoside and seven kown flavonoids, luteolin quercetin, luteolin 7-O-$\beta$-D-glucopyranoside, luteolin-7-O-(6"-O-acetyl)-$\beta$-D-gluco-pyranoside, quercetin 7-O- -glucopyranoside, acacetin 7-O-$\beta$-D-glucuronide and apigenin-6-C-$\beta$-D-glucopyranosyl-8-C-$\beta$-D-glucopyranoside were first isolated and identified from safflower leaf. Among these flavonoids, luteolin-acetyl-glucoside and $\beta$quercetin- acetyl-glucoside showed potent antioxidative activities against 2-deoxyribose degradation and lipid peroxidation in rat liver microsomes. Luteolin, quercetin and their corresponding glycosides also exhibited strong antioxidative activity, while acacetin glucuronide and apigenin-6, 8-di-C-glucoside were relatively less active. Finally, changes in phenolic compositions were also determined by HPLC in the safflower seed and leaf during growth stages and roasting process to produce standardized supplement powerds. These results suggest that phenolic compounds in the roasted safflower seed and leaf may be useful as potential sources of therapeutic agents against several pathological disorders such as carcinogenesis, atherosclerosis and osteoporosis.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.213-218
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• 2000

Morphological characteristics of 16 collected safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)accessions were studied at Gyongbuk A.T.A. Uisong Medicinal Plant Experiment Station in 1998. As for plant height, 5 lines were tall(more than 131cm), which were mainly foreign safflower. Middle and small were 5 and 6 accessions, respectively. Number of branch per plant was 11∼13 in 2 accessions of domestic safflowers while foreign safflowers have more than 50 branches per plant. Leaf shapes were oblong(3 lines), lanceolate(10 lines) and broadly linear(3 lines). There were three types of leaf margin shape which were repand(7 lines), serrate(4 lines) and parted serrate(5 lines). Flower color was white(1 line), yellow(13 lines) and red orange(2 lines). As for flower head shape, 14 lines were conical and 2 lines were flattened. There were thorns on bract of flower head in 11 lines but in 5 lines there were not. Domestic safflower lines had seeds of conical shape. Contrastively, seed shapes of foreign saffower lines were oval.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.301-309
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• 2001

This study was conducted to provide the basic information on safflower collections and to identify the variations which could be utilized in safflower breeding programs. The agronomic characteristics was used to clarify the genetic relationships among safflower collections and to classify them into distint genetic groups. There were 21 early maturing collections with less than 80 days in number of days from planting to flowering. The number of primary and secondary branches ranged ${3.8{\sim}14.8\;and\;0{\sim}26.9}$, respectively, and two collections, IT201434 and IT202723, were found to be high branch types. The 101 safflower collections were classified into 11 groups based on the complete linkage cluster analysis using agronomic characteristics. The I, II, III, IV, IX, X and ? groups included the 25%, 33%, 14%, 8%, 2%, 1% and 1% of the collections, respectively. All the collections in the group III were Korean landraces. The collections in group X could be characterized as early emergence, late flowering and high yield components such as the number of capitula per plant, number of seeds per capitula and seed weight per plant. The number of capitula per plant and seed weight per plant, i.e., the two main yield components, had the highly significant positive correlations with stem diameter, number of the primary branches, number of the secondary branches, number of leaves and leaf length.