• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.789-795
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• 2010

In order to set up an accurate quality criteria for the Boraginaceae that have been traditionally used for medical purposes and food colorant, and to assess its viability as functional food ingredient, antioxidant tests were conducted on the wild and cultivated plants. Variety of indicators including total contents of phenol, DPPH, SOD-liked effect, hydroxy radical-scavenging effect, lecithin oxidation inhibitory effect, etc were analyzed. Wild and cultivated gromwell's total contents of phenol in their methanol extracts were 0.14% and 0.13%, while they were most active in ethyl acetate extracts and n-hexane extracts, respectively. $IC_{50}$ values of methanol extract of the wild and cultivated plants were 794.41 ${\mu}g$/mL and 971.86 ${\mu}g$/mL, indicating that the wild plant is more responsive (p<0.05) to low concentration. Also the wild and cultivated plants were most active in ethyl acetate fraction and n-hexane extracts when their $IC_{50}$ values were measured by each solvent extracts. SOD-liked effects of both plants were concentration dependent while methanol extracts were more active (p<0.05) in 500 ${\mu}g$/mL than other solvent extracts. Hydroxy radical-scavenging effect of both plants showed less than 50% activity in concentration of 1,000 ${\mu}g$/mL except in chloroform fraction and n-hexane fraction. Lecithin oxidation inhibitory effects of the wild and cultivated plants were active in methanol and solvent extracts of 200~1000 ${\mu}g$/mL. Especially it showed 90% of high inhibitory effect in 1,000 ${\mu}g$/mL of chloroform fraction. Hence, both wild and cultivated Boraginaceae were analyzed to be viable as functional food ingredient.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.415-431
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• 2007

The native vascular plants, growing at the nature sabbatical application area, were classified & recorded as a total of 407 taxa, 83 families, 235 genera, 338 species, 3 subspecies, 54 varieties and 12 forms. The endangered wild plants were recorded as 2 taxa (Paeonia obovata and Lilium cernuum) and the Korean endemic plants were observed to exist in the formation of 21 taxa, 13 families, 19 genera, 15 species, 4 varieties and 2 forms including Cephalotaxus koreana, Pseudostellaria coreana, Aconitum pseudo-laeve, Clematis trichotoma, Geranium koreanum for. hirsutum, Thalictrum uchiyamai. The floristic special plants consist of 55 taxa, 35 families, 50 genera, 51 species, 4 varieties(Crypsinus hastatus, Cimicifuga heracleifolia, Paeonia obovata, Lilium cernuum and Gastrodia elata etc.). The naturalized plants comprise 10 taxa, 4 families, 10 genera, 9 species and 1 variety. The ratio of Urbanization and Naturalized Index was 3.51% and 2.46%, respectively. Life form spectra were displayed as H-R5-D4-e type.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 1993.08a
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• pp.13-23
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• 1993

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2013

Heat shock proteins play an important role in plant stress tolerance and are mainly regulated by heat shock transcription factors (Hsfs). In this study, we generated transgenic rice over-expressing OsHsfA7 and carried out morphological observation and stress tolerance assays. Transgenic plants exhibited less, shorter lateral roots and root hair. Under salt treatment, over-expressing OsHsfA7 rice showed alleviative appearance of damage symptoms and higher survival rate, leaf electrical conductivity and malondialdehyde content of transgenic plants were lower than those of wild type plants. Meanwhile, transgenic rice seedlings restored normal growth but wild type plants could not be rescued after drought and re-watering treatment. These findings indicate that over-expression of OsHsfA7 gene can increase tolerance to salt and drought stresses in rice seedlings.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.217-224
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• 2009

In this study, four plants grown naturally in Egypt that are usually consumed by pastoral nomads were screened for their total phenolic contents, antioxidative, and anti-$\alpha$-amylase activities. Dried powder of plant's part was extracted in absolute or 70% ethanol. A polar extract of Panicum turgidum (PTPE) had the highest total polyphenol content {92.5 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g}, followed by an alkaloid extract of Withania somnifera (WSAlk; 77.5 mg GAE/g), and an ethanol extract of Leptadenia pyrotechnica (LPEE; 59.1 mg GAE/g). By employing different assays such as DPPH radical scavenging, reducing power, $Fe^+$ chelating, $H_2O_2$ scavenging and total antioxidant capacity, it was shown that PTPE, WSEE (ethanol extract of W. somnifera), WSAlk and LPEE had promising antioxidant activity, though, their potency varied according to the different tests. WSAlk had the highest level of $\alpha$-amylase inhibition (40.2%) in vitro, followed by WSEE (30.5%). Therefore, it can be concluded that these plants, especially extracts of PTPE, and WSAlk are beneficial to physiological health, and could be used in food and pharmaceutical industries to prepare dietary supplements, functional foods or food preservatives.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.190-201
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• 2022

Background: The introduction of new living modified (LM) crops may pose a latent threat to the biodiversity of each country. Here, we used sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L.) as a study system to investigate the potential for invasiveness of LM crops under different environmental conditions when released into a natural ecosystem in South Korea. We examined the seed germination, survival, and flowering of sunflowers under competition with wild plants at different sowing dates (March-December) and plot sizes (1 m × 1 m and 2 m × 2 m). Results: The germination rate showed a significant difference according to the sowing date. In addition, several sunflowers survived in plots with a high germination rate, which also led to a higher flowering rate. We found that the smaller the plot, the smaller the area available for inter-species competition, and the higher the number of surviving sunflower plants. The relative dominance and importance value of the species varied significantly between the sowing dates; in particular, sunflowers sown in March could compete with wild plants for longer than those sown on other sowing dates. Conclusions: These observations indicate that the potential for invasiveness of sunflowers differs depending on the environmental conditions and seed density at the time of release.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2003

To investigate the function of chloroplast small heat shock protein (HSP), transgenic tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum L, cv. SR-1) that constitutively overexpress the rice chloroplast small HSP (Oshsp26) were generated. Effects of constitutive expression of the Oshsp26 on thermotolerance were investigated with the chlorophyll fluorescence. After 5-min incubation of leaf discs at high temperatures, an increase in the Fo level, indication of separation of LHCII from PSII, was mitigated by constitutive expression of the chloroplast small HSP When tobacco plantlets grown in Petri dishes were incubated at $20^{\circ}C$/TEX> for 45 min and subsequently incubated at $20^{\circ}C$/TEX> leaf color of wild-type plant became gradually white and all plantlets were finally died. Under the conditions in which all the wild-type plants died, more than 80% of the transformants remained green and survived. It was also found that the levels of Oshsp26 protein accumulated in transgenic plants were correlated with the degree of thermotolerance. These results suggest that the chloroplast small HSP plays an important role in protecting photosynthetic machinery, as a results, increases thermotolerance of whole plant during heat stress.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.323-327
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• 1998

The contents of saikosaponin a, c and d in the root of somaclones and wild plants of B. falcatum L. were determined. The saikosaponin contents of wild plants collected from Chongson-gun, Kangwon Province and Yongdok-gun, Kyongbuk Province were higher than those of the somaclones derived from 3-month and 2-year aged calli. The mean values of saikosaponin content in 2 year-old somaclones derived from the callus cultured three months were higher than those in 1 year-old somaclones from 2-year aged callus. Variation of saikosaponin content depending on the culture periods was not found. Four plants among 1-year old somaclones showed saikosaponin content twice as much as wild plants had. This result implies the possible use of somaclonal variation for crop improvement.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.220-225
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• 2014

An efficient in vitro protocol has been established for somatic embryogenesis and plantlet conversion of Korean wild ginseng (Panax ginseng Meyer). Wild-type and mutant adventitious roots derived from the ginseng produced calluses on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 0.3 mg/L kinetin; 53.3% of the explants formed callus. Embryogenic callus proliferation and somatic embryo induction occurred on MS medium containing 0.5 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. The induced somatic embryos further developed to maturity on MS medium with 5 mg/L gibberellic acid, and 85% of them germinated. The germinated embryos were developed to shoots and elongated on MS medium with 5 mg/L gibberellic acid. The shoots developed into plants with well-developed taproots on one-third strength Schenk and Hildebrandt basal medium supplemented with 0.25 mg/L 1-naphthaleneacetic acid. When the plants were transferred to soil, about 30% of the regenerated plants developed into normal plants.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.487-494
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• 2013

An AlaAT knock-out mutant (alaat) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) was isolated from T-DNA tagging lines and the genotypes of its progeny were determined with AlaAT1-specific primers. The alaat phenotypes showed decreased growth and grain yield when compared with control plants. The activity of AlaAT1 in the mutant plants was practically undetectable. The responses of alaat plants to growth under salt stress were compared with those of control plants by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence and the activities and mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes. All abiotic stresses tested (salt, drought, and chilling) caused a similar decrease in chlorophyll fluorescence in both alaat and wild type plants. The activity of peroxidase (POX), an antioxidant enzyme, decreased following salt treatment of alaat plants, while control plant showed an increased activity. The mRNA levels for cAPX (cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase), POX2, and AlaAT were determined by RT-PCR following salt stress. No AlaAT1 mRNA was detected in alaat plants. The POX2 mRNA showed a slightly increased level in the wild type but was not detected in alaat plants, in agreement with the activity assays. The levels of cAPX mRNA were greatly increased in both the wild type and alaat plants. The salt stress effects on rice plant growth are therefore proposed to reflect a loss of function of AlaAT, which alters the activity and synthesis of antioxidant enzymes (especially peroxidases), rather than a direct effect on photosynthesis.