• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.1475-1483
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• 2023

This study aimed to evaluate the cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant activities of soymilk fermented with probiotic Lactobacillaceae strains and to investigate the production of related bioactive compounds. Lactiplantibacillus plantarum KML06 (KML06) was selected for the fermentation of soymilk because it has the highest antioxidant, cholesterol-lowering, and β-glucosidase activities among the 10 Lactobacillaceae strains isolated from kimchi. The genomic information of strain KML06 was analyzed. Moreover, soymilk fermented with KML06 was evaluated for growth kinetics, metabolism, and functional characteristics during the fermentation period. The number of viable cells, which was similar to the results of radical scavenging activities and cholesterol assimilation, as well as the amount of soy isoflavone aglycones, daidzein, and genistein, was the highest at 12 h of fermentation. These results indicate that soymilk fermented with KML06 can prevent oxidative stress and cholesterol-related problems through the production of soy isoflavone aglycones.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2003

Phytoestrogens, especially soy-derived isoflavones, are receiving great scrutiny as a food supplement for preventing hormone dependent disease such as postmenopausal osteoporosis. Their beneficial effects are derived from aglycone form of isoflavones, such as daidzein, genistein or glycitein. In contrast to the common usage of soybean, black bean (Rhynchosia Molubilis : Yak-kong) has been used as a supplement for preventing postmenopausal osteoporosis in oriental medicine. To investigate the effects of the saliva, artificial stomach fluid, and digestive enzymes on the conversion of glycosidic isoflavone to aglycone form, soybean and black bean were extracted with 70% methanol and freeze-dried. The recovery yield of methanol extracts of black bean was 14.1% which was higher than that of soybean, 13.5%. In terms of total isoflavones, we routinely obtained larger amount of isoflavones from black bean than those from soybean. By incubating methanol extracts of soybean and black bean with IN HCI for 180 min, the proportions of aglycones relative to the total isoflavone were significantly increased (32.4% and 52.4%, respectively). In vitro conversion, digestive enzymes ($\beta$-glucosidase and $\alpha$-glucosidase) may hydrolyze glycosidic bond of isoflavone more effectively than saliva or artificial stomach fluid did. It seems to say that the activity of $\beta$-glucosidase was higher than those of $\alpha$-glucosidase. The rate of conversion of glucoside form to aglycone form in black bean and soybean was low in physiological condition (pH) tested, although the enzymatic hydrolysis of glucoside was active. These results demonstrated that the composition of aglycone in food may be the important factors in terms of the bioavailability of isoflavones. (Korean J Nutrition 36(1): 32-39, 2003)

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2001

Recently, the consumption of soy products has been associated with low rates of hormone-dependent and hormone-independent cancers. Asians, who consume $20{\sim}50times$ more soy per capita than Americans, have lower incidence and death rates from breast and prostate cancer. Because soy contains the isoflavones genistein and daidzein (present as their glycosidic conjugates) at mg/g concentrations, it has been suggested that isoflavones might be acting as natural chemopreventive agents. During the 1980s several groups of investigators carried out experiments to test the effectiveness of soy in the diet in animal models of cancer. These studies reported a protective effect of soy; none showed that soy increased cancer risk. Genistein was shown to inhibit the growth of a wide variety of tumor cell types in culture. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of genistein on the carcinogenesis induced by topical application of 0.5% 9, 10-dimethyl 1,2-benzanthracene (DMBA) on the hamster buccal pouch. 48 syrian hamsters were employed in this study, divided into experimental group and control. 24 animals (DMBA topical application group) had the right buccal pouch painted 3times weekly with 0.5% DMBA in mineral oil, 24 animals (genistein group) were supplied with 0.1mg genistein with DMBA topical application. 3 animals in the experimental group and control were sacrificed at serially each other week after experiments. Their buccal pouches were removed and routinely processed for microscopic examination. The results were as follows: 1. In DMBA topical application and genistein group, they showed carcinogenesis as time goes by experimental stage. 2. Genistein group was retarded in carcinogenesis related to the acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, epithelial dysplasia. 3. p53 immunohistochemical study showed that the p53 protein of genistein group was less expressed than that of the control group. Thus, it seems that genistein has chemopreventive effect on the carcinogenesis in the oral cavity, but further study is required to elucidate the anticancer mechanism of genistein.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.213-219
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• 2016

Analysis of nutritional compositions of soybean sprouts cultivated with bamboo ash was carried out. Bamboo ash was utilized as sprouting water of soybeans and adjusted to 0.2, 0.6, 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 6.0 and 10.0 g/L. Stem length and contents of isoflavone (daidzin, glycitin, genestin, daidzein, glycitein, and genestein) and vitamin C in soybean sprouts cultivated with 0.2 g/L were higher than those in soybean sprouts cultivated with only water. Potassium, magnesium, and calcium of all cultivation methods were detected in higher contents than others. In particular, potassium showed a high absorption rate in the soybean sprouts. The major amino acid was asparagine (616.05~849.15 mg/100 g, soybean eq.), and contents of lysine, leucine, and ornithine in soybean sprouts cultivated at 0.2 g/L were higher than those of methods by only water and addition of 6-benzylaminopurine. According to the results, soybean sprouts cultivated with 0.2 g/L of bamboo ash were effective for increasing nutritional compositions.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.446-455
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• 2011

Galgeun-tang (GGT) is a traditional medicinal formula that is widely prescribed to treat cold, asthma, and hives in Korea. Fermented herbal medicines can be made more effective than normal herbal medicines by increasing the absorption and bioavailability of the active compounds. In this study, we fermented Galgeun-tang to produce bioconversion constituents using Lactobacillus plantarum (GGT144), and found that four peaks were decreased, three peaks were increased and two new peaks appeared in the HPLC-DAD chromatogram. After HPLC-DAD-guided fractionation of the newly-appearing compounds (1 and 5) and the increased (6, 7, and 9) compounds, the structure of the compounds was determined using NMR and MS. Using this approach the compounds were identified to be pyrogallol (1), daidzein (5), liquiritigenin (6), cinnamyl alcohol (7), and formononetin (9), respectively. In addition, the decreased compounds were identified to be daidzin (2), liquiritin (3), ononin (4), and cinnam aldehyde (8) using HPLC-DAD analysis with standard compounds. The high performance liquid chromatography method was used to quantify the nine constituents in GGT and GGT144. All calibration curves of the standard compounds displayed excellent linearity with a $R^2$ > 0.9968.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2004

There is some evidence that phytostrogen plays an important role in bone metabolism in postmenopausal women. In this study, we investigated the phytoestrogen intake levels and the relation between dietary phytoestrogens intake and bone mineral density of vegetarian (n = 77) and omnivore postmenopausal women (n = 122 . Vegetarian women, all of them were seven day adventists, who had been on vegetarian diet (almost lacto-ovo vegetarians;a few vegans) oyer 20 yrs. The average age of vegetarians and omnivores were 62.3 yrs and 60.2 yrs, respectively and, there was no significant difference. However, body weight (p < 0.001), body mass index (p < 0.001) of vegetarians were significantly lower than those of omnivores. The mean daily energy intake of vegetarians and omnivores were 1386.1 kcal (76.3% of RDA) and 1424.5 kcal (76.9% of RDA), respectively. The mean calcium intake of vegetarians (456.7 mg, 66.3 % of RDA) was not significantly different from that of omnivores (453.5 mg, 65.2 % of RDA). The mean daily isoflavones (daidzein +genistein) intake of vegetarians and omnivore were 33.9 mg and 23.9 mg, respectively. The vegetarians consumed significantly greater quantities of isoflavones (p < 0.05) and lignans precursor (p < 0.05). In the vegetarians, intake of isoflavones was significantly positively correlated with BMD of femoral neck, after adjusted for age and BMI. Also lignan precursor intake of vegetarians was significantly positively correlated with BMD of spine, after adjusted for age and BMI. In conclusion, in omnivore post menopausal women, intake of phytoestrogen such as isoflavones and lignans was little low, and it is not clear that positive association with bone mineral density. But in vegetarian postmenopausal women, phytoestrogen intakes be important factors related to bone mineral density.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1109-1114
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• 2008

To understand the role of intestinal microflora in the biological effect of functional herbs, which have been used in Korea, Japan, and China as traditional medicines, and suggest new bioactive compounds transformed from herbal constituents, the metabolic activities of the functional herb components (ginsenoside Rb1, crocin, amygdalin, geniposide, puerarin, ginsenoside Re, poncirin, hesperidin, glycyrrhizin, and baicalin) toward their bioactive compounds (compound K, crocetin, benzaldehyde, genipin, daidzein, ginsenoside Rh1, ponciretin, hesperetin, 18b-glycyrrhetic acid, and baicalein) were measured in fecal specimens. The metabolic activities of these components were $882.7{\pm}814.5$, $3,938.1{\pm}2,700.8$, $2,375.5{\pm}913.7$, $1,179.4{\pm}795.7$, $24.6{\pm}10.5$, $11.4{\pm}10.8$, $578.8{\pm}206.1$, $1,150.0{\pm}266.1$, $47.3{\pm}58.6$, and $12,253.0{\pm}6,527.6\;{\mu}mol/h/g$, respectively. No differences were found in the metabolic activities of the tested components between males and females, although these metabolic activities between individuals are extensively different. The metabolites of functional herb components showed more potent cytotoxicity against tumor cells than nonmetabolites. These findings suggest that intestinal microflora may activate the pharmacological effect of herbal food and medicines and must be the biocatalytic converter for the transformation of herbal components to bioactive compounds.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.467-477
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• 2020

Doenjang is a major fermented soy-based food in Korea. Recent investigations have shown that fermented soybean foods have immunity-enhancing, anti-cancer, anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects. Several studies also have reported that genistein and daidzein, which are easily absorbed in the body are produced in larger quantities in aged doenjang. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the variations in the anti-cancer effects of commercialized doenjang as it ages. Four groups were formed for this study according to aging periods of doenjang, namely short (under 5 years, S group), mid (under 10 years, M group), long (under 15 years, L group) and very long (over 15 years, E group). The anti-cancer effects of doenjang were determined by cell cytotoxicity assays in A549, YAC-1, and HepG2 cancer cell lines. Also, NK cell activity and splenocyte proliferation were assayed for cancer immunotherapy. The quantities of phenolic compounds in doenjang at different ages were also measured. The results showed that the anti-cancer effects increased in the S and M groups for all three cancer cell lines. Interestingly, similar to this result, splenocyte proliferation and NK activity were also the highest in the S and M groups. In contrast, the E group showed significantly reduced splenocyte proliferation. The quantity of phenolic compounds was similar to that of the anti-cancer results. Collectively, these results suggest that the fermentation period of doenjang plays a very important role in determining its anti-cancer effects.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1046-1050
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• 2009

Our previous study showed that isoflavone profile of soybean undergoes a significant change during cheonggukjang preparation. In particular, the content of metabolite(s) with similar retention time to glycitein under the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) condition was significantly increased while the levels of genistein and its derivatives were notably lowered. Therefore, we hypothesized that genistein and its derivatives might be converted to genistein glucosides with similar elution time to glycitein. Our current data suggest that genistein and its derivatives are extensively metabolized into various compounds including genistein glycosides, but not glycitein or its derivatives, by Bacillus species isolated from traditional cheonggukjang. Some of daidzein was also converted into a derivative with shorter retention time by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens 51 and 86-1 but not by Bacillus subtilis 3-5 and 3-17. As metabolism of soy isoflavones, major health-promoting components in soy products, is widely variable depending upon Bacillus species, it is essential to select microorganism that minimizes the breakdown or modification of soy isoflavones in the process of fermented soy product manufacture.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.163-169
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• 2009

A total of 155 microbial strains were isolated from the Korean traditional soybean paste based on their morphological features on the growth of agar plate. Among the isolated strains, a total of 28 strains were capable of hydrolyzing isoflavone glycoside to isoflavone aglycone efficiently in the soybean paste. Finally, two strains, K123-1 and SI, were selected because of their resistance to 15% NaCl and ability to convert isoflavone glycoside to isoflavone aglycone efficiently during the fermentation of soybean paste. The isolated strains K123-1 and SI were identified to be Pichia guilliermondii and Candida fermentati, respectively, using the partial 26S rDNA sequence analysis and phylogenic analysis. Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI converted daidzin to daidzein up to 96% and 95%, respectively, and genistin to genistein up to 92% when soybean pastes were fermented at $30^{\circ}C$ for 20 days with a single isolated strain. Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI were able to grow in the presence of 15% NaCl on both liquid medium and agar plate. We think that Pichia guilliermondii K123-1 and Candida fermentati SI might be one of good candidates for making functional soybean paste because they are isolated from the Korean traditional soybean paste and have a good ability to convert isoflavone glycosides to isoflavone aglycones and a high salt tolerance.