• 한국인삼전략화협의회:학술대회논문집
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• v.2003 no.09
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• pp.54-63
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• 2003

"Korea ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A Meyer) is an important medicinal plant. Its root has been used as an herbal medicine that provides resistance to stress and disease, and prevents exhaustion since the ancient time. Ginsenosides, glycosylated triterpene (saponin), are considered to be the main active compounds of the ginseng root. Despite of considerable commercial interests of ginsenosides, very little is known about the genes and their biochemical pathways for ginsenoside biosynthesis. This work will focus on the identification of genes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis and the dissection of ginsenoside biosynthetic pathway using a functional genomics tool. Expression sequence tags (ESTs) provide a valuable tool to discovery the genes in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. We generated over 21,155 ginseng ESTs that is now sufficient to facilitate discovering the genes involved in ginsenoside biosynthesis such as oxidosqualene cyclase(OSC), cytochrome P450 and glycosyltransferase. With ESTs information, microarray technology will be used for the analysis of gene expression, and the identification of genes including transcription factors expressed in tissues under given experimental condition. Heterogous system such as yeast and plants will allow us to do the functional analysis. And selected ginseng hairy root which show variation in ginsenoside production will be used as a material for functional analysis of candidate gene. Functional genomics approach will successfully accelerate gene discovery, and also provide promises of metabolic engineering for the ginsenoside production."

• CELLMED
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.5
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• 2019

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases globally and currently affects approximately 300 million people worldwide. As per scientific data, approximately 10-12% of adults; and 15% of children are affected by the disease. The increasing global prevalence of the disease imposes a high health care costs into its mechanisms and treatment. Unani system of medicine (USM) is a well known traditional therapy for number of diseases since ancient times. Time has proved that USM has a special role in treatment of chronic diseases, due its special Usooleillaj (Line of treatment). Dhiq al-Nafas (bronchial asthma) is also considered as a chronic disease. Since ancient times, the disease was cured by number of single as well as compound formulations by renowned Unani scholars. This review provides a comprehensive summary of medicinal plant throughout the world, with reference to renowned Unani scholars and physicians for treatment of Dhiq al-Nafas. A number of Unani single and compound drugs, highly efficacious and safe drugs are available for the asthma. The data were taken from classical literature of USM, Modern reference books & electronic journals. The recent information was collected from different authentic search engines. This review will provide the centuries therapeutic information's of classical literature and recent scientific studies of 12 herbal drugs mentioned in USM, which will help the academia, clinicians, research scholars and post graduate students from Unani Medicine, Traditional & Complementary Medicine and other related disciplines, having research interest or work in the Unani medicine.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.383-388
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• 2010

Identification of natural compounds that can prevent the development of obesity in vivo is time consuming and expensive. We have used in vitro systems derived from pig adipose tissue to screen simple aqueous or ethanolic extracts of Korean medicinal herbs (KMH) for their anti-adipogenic potential. A total of 183 extracts were tested for their actions in lipogenesis of pig adipose tissue and differentiation of pig preadipocytes. Ethanol extracts were prepared from 72 and aqueous extracts were prepared from 111 medicinal herbs. Both an ethanolic and an aqueous extract were prepared from 65 of these. Thirteen extracts substantially altered rates of lipogenesis in vitro. The effects of KMH on lipogenesis of pig adipose tissue are as follows. Elevens reduced lipogenesis to rates that were more than 40% lower than control and four of these reduced rates of lipogenesis by more than 70%. The most potent anti-lipogenic extracts were those obtained in ethanol from Iridaceae and from Sophora flavescens AIT as well as both the aqueous and ethanolic extracts from Lysimachia vulgaris L. Two extracts, those prepared in water from Caesalpiniae lignum and from Phellodendri cortex, were found to promote rates of lipogenesis in vitro. The effects of KMH on differentiation of pig preadoipocytes are as follows. Twentyeight extracts altered the rates of differentiation of cultured porcine preadipocytes. Sixteen increased and twelve reduced the rates of differentiation of preadipocytes. Extracts prepared in ethanol from Moutan radicis cortex and from Ostericum koreanum and those prepared in water from Angelicae gigantis radix, from Inula henenium L and from Magnolia flos doubled the rate of differentiation of cultured porcine preadipocytes. Ten extracts reduced the in vitro rate of differentiation of porcine preadipocytes by more than 35%. These were the ethanolic extracts from Glycyrrizae radix, Nepetae spica and from Polygala myrtifolia and the aqueous extracts from Amaranthaceae, Asparagus cochinchinesis, Atractylodis rhizoma alba, Citrus junos TANAKA, Cyperus rotundus, Epimedium grandiflorum and from Moutan radicis cortex. Only the ethanolic extract from Polygala myrtifolia was able to both reduce lipogenesis in adipose tissue slices and retard differentiation of cultured preadipocytes. The results of our study will provide meaningful information to identify medicinal herbs which would reduce fat deposition in livestocks and humans.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.109 no.4
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• pp.371-381
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• 2020

The Ministry of Environment (ME) is planning to adopt in 2020 the IUCN regional Red List for "Guidelines for listing and delisting rare & endangered species and management of endangered Species System". The ME designated 377 species of vascular plants on the regional Red List. In a previous study it had been suggested that 103 species from this list are candidates for the regional Red List. With respect to a possible Red List, we assessed 59 species (after excluding 34 additional NA species and ten endemic species). These assessments indicated that 16 species are at the "threatened" level. Of those, one species is Critically Endangered, ten are Endangered, and five are Vulnerable. A further four species are classified as Near Threatened, 30 as Of Least Concern, and nine as Data Deficient. We found that most of the assessments proposed by the Ministry of Environment were not supported by scientific data, including quantitative geographic data (over 70%) in Criteria B. In order to determine the endangered species belonging to the orchid family, it is necessary to obtain records of illegal activities or data on overcollection. The current problem with the Ministry of Environment Red List has been the lack of management of scientific data on species showing a trend in decreasing population in the mid- to long-term; thus, there is a lack of critical resources for policy-makers. The ME legally designated categories and assessment, and the lack of expertise in failing to comply with the legal law by itself. The key to presenting an accurate overview of the state of Korean flora is to fill the information gaps with respect to significant geographical and taxonomical biases in the quality and quantity of data. By regularly updating the qualified data, we will be able to track the changes in the conservation status of the flora and inform the necessary conservation policies.