• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.295-304
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• 2021

Background: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a hematopoietic malignancy driven by promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor A (PML-RARA) fusion gene. The therapeutic drugs currently used to treat APL have adverse effects. 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2 (GRh2) is an anticancer medicine with high effectiveness and low toxicity. However, the underlying anticancer mechanisms of GRh2-induced PML-RARA degradation and apoptosis in human APL cell line (NB4 cells) remain unclear. Methods: Apoptosis-related indicators and PML-RARA expression were determined to investigate the effect of GRh2 on NB4 cells. Z-VAD-FMK, LY294002, and C 87, as inhibitors of caspase, and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) pathways were used to clarify the relationship between GRh2-induced apoptosis and PML-RARA degradation. Results: GRh2 dose- and time-dependently decreased NB4 cell viability. GRh2-induced apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, and caspase3, caspase8, and caspase9 activation in NB4 cells after a 12-hour treatment. GRh2-induced apoptosis in NB4 cells was accompanied by massive production of reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial damage and upregulated Bax/Bcl-2 expression. GRh2 also induced PML/PML-RARA degradation, PML nuclear bodies formation, and activation of the downstream p53 pathway in NB4 cells. Z-VAD-FMK inhibited caspase activation and significantly reversed GRh2-induced apoptosis and PML-RARA degradation. GRh2 also upregulated TNF-α expression and inhibited Akt phosphorylation. LY294002, an inhibitor of the PI3K pathway, enhanced the antitumor effects of GRh2, and C 87, an inhibitor of the TNF-α pathway, reversed NB4 cell viability, and GRh2-mediated apoptosis in a caspase-8-dependent manner. Conclusion: GRh2 induced caspase-dependent PML-RARA degradation and apoptosis in NB4 cells via the Akt/Bax/caspase9 and TNF-α/caspase8 pathways.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.63-77
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• 2010

Objectives : It is known that abdominal obesity increases the possibility of cardiovascular diseases, early death, and metabolic syndrome including dyslipidemia and insulin resistance. Clinical trials have been under way to verify the effectiveness of treatment for abdominal obesity. The objective of this study is to set criteria about how effective oriental medicine and acupuncture are in abdominal obesity. Methods : I manually search "www.clinicaltrial.gov", 4 Korean medical databases and 4 Korean medical journals of abdominal obesity. Search terms used were "abdominal obesity" or "visceral obesity". In order to see detail review, searching was performed from 01, 01, 2005 to 11, 31, 2009. And I classified all the searched studies into design, intervention, purpose, end point, diseases, condition and etc. Results : 1. I could search total 67 trials in "www.clinicaltrial.gov". I found 9, 10, 13, 8, 6 clinical trial from 2005 to 2009 every year. 2. Test on both gender and adult or adult and senior have been most frequent. 3. Randomization clinical trial is 51 cases that occupied 96.2%. 38 cases use control group. 4. Body mass index(BMI) and waist circunference(WC) are major criteria of abdominal obesity clincal trial. WC, BMI, abdominal fat mass, body weight are measured at end point of abdominal obesity clincal trial. 5. I could search total 86 cases in domestic study. I found 15, 23, 23, 20, 5 cases from 2005 to 2009 every year. 6. Test on female and adult have been most frequent in domestic study. 7. Randomization clincal trial is only 2 cases that occupied 2.3%. 62 cases use control group in domestic study. 8. BMI, body fat percent, WC, visceral-subcutaneous fat ratio(VSR), waist-hip ratio(WHR) are criteria of abdominal obesity clincal trial in domestic study. WC, BMI, abdominal fat mass, body weight are measured at end point of abdominal obesity clincal trial in domestic study. Conclusions : To improve abdominal obesity study in traditional korean medicine, it is need to activate clinical trial, meta analysis, develope of clinical practice guidelines, co-works with conventional medicine and etc.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.833-842
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• 2020

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a commonly encountered large intestine disease in the contemporary world that terminates into colorectal cancer; therefore, the timely treatment of UC is of major concern. Panax ginseng Meyer is an extensively consumed herbal commodity in South East Asian countries, especially Korea. It exhibits a wide range of biologically beneficial qualities for almost head-to-toe ailments in the body. Epimedium koreanum Nakai (EKN) is also a widely used traditional Korean herbal medicine used for treating infertility, rheumatism, and cardiovascular diseases. Materials and methods: Separately the anti-inflammatory activities of both red ginseng extracts (RGEs) and EKNs had been demonstrated in the past in various inflammatory models; however, we sought to unravel the anti-inflammatory activities of the combination of these two extracts in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis in mice model because the allopathic remedies for UC involve more side effects than benefits. Results: Our results have shown that the combination of RGE + EKN synergistically alleviated the macroscopic lesions in DSS-induced colitic mice such as colon shortening, hematochezia, and weight loss. Moreover, it restored the histopathological lesions in mice and decreased the levels of proinflammatory mediators and cytokines through the repression of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and nucleotide-binding domain (NOD)-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP-3) expression. In vitro, this combination also reduced the magnitude of nitric acid (NO), proinflammatory mediators and cytokine through NF-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways in RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cells. Conclusion: In the light of these findings, we can endorse this combination extract as a functional food for the prophylactic as well as therapeutic treatment of UC in humans together with allopathic remedies.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1732-1741
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• 2006

Obesity is chronic disease which influenced on health severly. The causes of obesity have been known as life change, lack of excercise, genetic factor, mental and social economic factors. Especially the obesity of women increased the risk of the diseases such as DM, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and infertility. The limitations of the widely used negative definition of health as the absence of disease and WHO's 1946 definition of health as total social, psychological and physical well-being have long been recognized (WHO 1958). The Quality of Life (QoL) includes functional ability, the degree and quality of social and community interaction, psychological well-being as somatic sensation and life satisfaction. I investigated to compare the differences between obese women (n=63), non-obese women (n=37) in clinic and general women (n=43, control) on baseline characteristics and WHO QoL-BREF. The purpose of this study is to assist the diagnosis and treatment of obesity. WHO QoL-BREF is self administered type which consisted of 26 questions. The prospective question is calculated with 5 scores by Likert's method. The results are as follows : The means of physical, psychological, social, overall and total scores of QoL were significant among BMI group (P<0.05). The score of control group (BMI < 25) was higher than other groups significantly (P<0.05). In multiple regression analysis, the variable of high school/below middle school was significant in environmental and overall domain of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of college/below middle school was significant in environmental, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of above university/below middle school was significant in physical health, environmental, overall domain and total score in QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of Health perception (moderate/bad) was positively significant in physical health, environmental, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable of Health perception (good/bed) was positively significant in physical health, environmental, social, overall domain and total score of QoL scores (P<0.05). The variable as BMI non-=obese women/control was negatively significant in social domain of QoL scores (P<0.05). Above the results, It suggests that the variable as BMI did't affect on the QoL in patients and control, but the variables as education and health perception affected on the QoL scores. Further study is required to conduct QoL differences between before and after treatment of obese patients.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-48
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• 1993

Nowaday, there have a lot of changes in the demands of the aged persons. Their problems also came to the fore with diverse forms under the influences of industrialization, urbanization and nuclear family. To make the matter worse, the aged population is mounting rapidly. Also, such structure as nuclear family is widely disseminating uncomfortable to the aged. People is mainly being guided by self interest above everything else. Indeed, they had, all together, bad effects on our traditional value system regarding 'respect for the aged and devotion to patients'. It seems unfortunately obvious that the family responsibility is gradually weakening to support the old who is a dependent family. The result is that the aged must have suffered all sorts of hardships in lightenning psychological, physical and economical difficulties. First, to grasp the situations and conditions supporting for single aged persons from each view of psychological, emotional, family-relational, healthy, social and economical standpoints, and second, to analyze their own recognition levels thinking of their health conditions and the relationships between the supporting environments of old family dependants and their psychological healths and then finally, to propose suggestions being able to be helpful for living comfortably in an old age and thereby, building up good family relation. The statistical techniques used to analyze 115 respondents living in Puchun city are frequency, $x^2$ test, t-Jest, ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation Coefficiency and Regression analysis (SPSS package), pertnent to prove the hypothesis suggested in this paper. Of course, it is needless to say that more data are needed on this point. However, several main research findings can be summarized as follows: First, the better single aged persons may be in the habit of eating a meal and the higher they may think of their physical health conditions and movement, the more they want to participate in economic activities to be free from economical dependence upon their children and to overcome lonliness. Second, single aged women appear to have had higher ability to take care their health for themself than single aged men do. It is why signle aged women do not, in general, have big problems to manage their health. But, as shown in this paper, single aged person"s were more liable to the diseases of the aged and, thereby, requiring special medical treatment badly to be healthy. Third. single aged persons revealed potential desires to free themself from socio economic dependence upon their children even in simple labor Job which can draw a monthly salary of about W200, 000. Fourth, they are generally satisfied with their children's filial piety toward them. Nonethless, most of them appear to be reluctantly dependent upon their children and live lonly lives very much. Fifth, they seem to have some hesitation in expressing their candid opinions as that then are some others along with family environmental factors for psychological and emotiona stability. Accordingly, it is safe to conclude by saying that much attention should' be paid no only to socio-economic supports and better medical services for the aged but also to political supports of the society and towards their children for the aged's emotiona support, for improving the quality of their lives in old age and promoting efficiency in suporting for old family dependants.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.160-168
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• 2016

Background: Ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer) is a well-characterized medicinal herb listed in the classic oriental herbal dictionary as "Shin-nong-bon-cho-kyung." Ginseng has diverse pharmacologic and therapeutic properties. Black ginseng (BG, Ginseng Radix nigra) is produced by repeatedly steaming fresh ginseng nine times. Studies of BG have shown that prolonged heat treatment enhances the antioxidant activity with increased radical scavenging activity. Several recent studies have showed the effects of BG on increased lipid profiles in mice. In this study report the effects of water and ethanol extracts of BG on hypercholesterolemia in rats. To our knowledge, this is the first time such an effect has been reported. Methods: Experiments were conducted on male Sprague Dawley rats fed with a high-cholesterol diet supplemented with the water and ethanol extracts of BG (200 mg/kg). Their blood cholesterol levels, serum white blood cell levels, and cholesterol-metabolizing marker genes messenger RNA (mRNA) expression were determined. Liver and adipose tissues were histologically analyzed. Results: We found that BG extracts efficiently reduced the total serum cholesterol levels, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels with increased food efficiency ratio and increased number of neutrophil cells. It also attenuated the key genes responsible for lipogenesis, that is, acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) acetyltransferase 2, 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase, and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2, at the mRNA level inside liver cells. Furthermore, the BG extract also reduced the accumulation of fat in adipose tissues, and inhibited the neutral fat content in liver cells stained with hematoxylin and eosin and oil red O. Conclusion: Administration of BG extracts to Sprague Dawley rats fed with high-cholesterol diet ameliorated hypercholesterolemia, which was mediated via modulation of cholesterol-metabolizing marker genes. This data throw a light on BG's cardioprotective effects.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2020

The Fabaceae family are being used as traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to compare the antioxidant effects as well as the cell protecting effects of extracts of 5 species (Astragalus membranaceus, Caesalpinia sappan L., Glycyrrhiza uralensis F., Pueraria lobate O., Pterocarpus santalinus L.) in Fabaceae family. The extracts from 5 species were tested by radical scavenging activity test, total phenolic contents and the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on human liver carcinoma (HepG2) cell line. Anti-oxidant effects of the extracts (5 mg/mL) from C. sappan was 93.49% by radical scavenging activity test. In addition, A. membranaceus extracts showed a weak radical scavenging activity. Anti-oxidant effects of the extracts (5 mg/mL) from A. membranaceus was 7.83% by radical scavenging activity test. Total phenolic contents of the extracts from C. sappan and A. membranaceus were 310.93 mg GAE/g extract, 15.33 mg GAE/g extract, respectively. Cell protecting effects against H₂O₂ treatment were observed at 100 ㎍/mL concentration of C. sappan and P. santalinus extracts. These results suggest that C. sappan and P. santalinus might be best anti-oxidant in Fabaceae family.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2011

Soy sprout is a traditional food in Korea. It has been a source of protein, lipid and vitamin etc. as cooked and fresh vegetable supplying throughout the year. Soy sprouts of five soybean cultivars were analyzed fatty acid composition and dietary fiber contents. The compositional analysis confirmed that soy sprout contained five major fatty acids(16:0 palmitic, 18:0 stearic, 18:1 oleic, 18:2 linoleic and 18:3 linolenic). Fatty acid levels in soy sprout were not significant statistically between fresh and boiled soy sprout, the result support a conclusion that boiling treatment could not affect the fatty acid composition in soy sprouts. Fatty acid levels in whole and cotyledon part of soy sprout were not changed during sprout production, whereas the content in hypocotyl increased by approximately 13.2% of total unsaturated fatty acid compared to whole soy sprout. In case of dietary fiber, boiled soy sprouts showed higher contents than in fresh soy sprouts. These changes were associated with an increase in the mean level of insoluble dietary fiber expecially. Fatty acid levels and dietary fiber contents varied with soybean cultivars suggesting chemical composition of soybean seed was important to soy sprout characters.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.79-95
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• 2010

Background and Purpose : By preventing diseases caused by exogenous evil, disorder of internal organs, and seven modes of emotions and adapting to mother nature when the mind is unsettled, and keeping the body and mind relaxed diseases can be avoided, but there can be unpredicted situations caused accidentally by stroke. Currently the general prescription is regulating the flow of vital energy including drugs eliminating blood stasis. Even though the stroke is resulted from diseases caused by exogenous evil, by observing the patient's physical appearance, essence of life, vital energy, and mental faculties which are believed to be the functions of the heart to clear the upper body and invigorate the functions of the spleen and stomach and purge with drugs of warm nature is a closer approach than simply prescribing vital energy regulating drugs with eliminating blood stasis to the main purpose of treatment. Methods : 1) The subject of the study are 2 cases of patients who have visited the private hospital of the person who is announcing the results of the study. These patients have been given a diagnosis of edema or cystoma caused by bursitis in the knee joint through perception or medical examination and were waiting for operational application. 2) Sources related to stroke from Dong Eui Bo Gwam(東醫寶鑑) were used as the general standard of Korean Traditional Medicine, and to promote the understanding the original text and the translation has been given. 3) By observing the whole body such as the patient's usual physical appearance, essence of life, vital energy, and mental faculties which are believed to be the functions of the heart, or partly using the "Yin is even and well while Yang is firm" theory of "Plain Questions" as the background to present the results of the clinical study. Results and Conclusion : Generally the prescriptions from the first volume of Dong Eui Bo Gwam(東醫寶鑑) are mostly drugs eliminating stagnated blood including extravasated blood and the blood moving sluggishly in circulation or congested in a viscus, alleviating pain, invigorating blood circulation. Also prescriptions for bone fracture or fracture of bones and sinews are mostly to eradicate blood stasis with drastic drugs or coaptation drugs added to drugs eliminating stagnated blood including extravasated blood and the blood moving sluggishly in circulation or congested in a viscus, alleviating pain, invigorating vital energy, possessing warm properties for the Xue system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.693-702
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• 2015

Blocking new blood-vessel formation (angiogenesis) is now recognized as a useful approach to the therapeutic treatment of many solid tumors. The best validated approach to date is to target the vascular endothelial growth-factor (VEGF) pathway, a key regulator of angiogenesis. Many natural products and extracts that contain a variety of chemopreventive compounds have been shown to suppress the development of malignancies through their anti-angiogenic properties. Phellodendron amurense, which is widely used in Korean traditional medicine, has been shown to possess antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, among others. The present study investigated the effects of P. amurense hot-water extract (PAHWE) on angiogenesis, a key process in tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. To investigate PAHWE’s anti-angiogenic properties, this study’s authors performed an analysis of angiogenesis and endothelial-cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and tube formation, as well as zymogram assays and the rat aortic ring-sprouting assay. PAHWE inhibited cell growth, mobility, and vessel formation in response to VEGF in vitro and ex vivo. Furthermore, it reduced VEGF-induced intracellular signaling events, such as the activation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) -2 and -9. These results indicate that PAHWE’s anti-angiogenic properties might lead to the development of potential drugs for treating angiogenesis-associated diseases such as cancer.