• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1622-1628
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• 2006

Bacteria from the Methylobacterium genus, called pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophic bacteria (PPFMs), are common inhabitants of plants, potentially dominating the phyllosphere population, and are also encountered in the rhizosphere, seeds, and other parts of plants, being versatile in nature. The consistent success of the Methylobacterium plant association relies on methylotrophy, the ability to utilize the one-carbon compound methanol emitted by plants. However, the efficiency of Methylobacterium in plant growth promotion could be better exploited and thus has attracted increasing interest in recent years. Accordingly, the present study investigated the inoculation effects of Methylobacterium sp. strains CBMB20 and CBMB 110 on seed imbibition to tomato and red pepper on the growth and accumulation of phytohormone levels under gnotobiotic conditions. Seeds treated with the Methylobacterium strains showed a significant increase in root length when compared with either the uninoculated control or Methylobacterium extorquens $miaA^-$ knockout mutanttreated seeds. Extracts of the plant samples were used for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), trans-zeatin riboside (t-ZR), and dihydrozeatin riboside (DHZR) assays by immunoanalysis. The treatment with Methylobacterium sp. CBMB20 or CBMB 110 produced significant increases in the accumulation of IAA and the cytokinins t-ZR and DHZR in the red pepper extracts, whereas no IAA was detected in the tomato extracts, although the cytokinin concentrations were significantly increased. Therefore, this study proved that the versatility of Methylobacterium as a plant-growth promoting bacteria could be better exploited.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.829-837
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of ethanol extracts from red pepper seeds on cholesterol adsorption capacity and UDP-glucuronyl transferase activity. In vitro cholesterol adsorption capacity of 2%, 5% and 10% ethanol extracts from red pepper seed groups were significantly higher than that of the control group. Sprague-Dawley strain male rats weighing $100{\pm}10$ g were randomly assigned to one normal diet N group and experimental groups fed high fat and high cholesterol diet, which were divided into HF (0.0%), HEA (0.1%), HEB (0.2%), and HEC (0.5%) groups according to the amount of ethanol extracts from red pepper seeds added to their basal diet. The body weight gain in the HF group was higher than that in the N group, and those in the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that in the HF group However, there were no statistically significant differences among the all the groups. The hepatic triglyceride and total cholesterol contents in the N group was significantly lower than that in the HF group, and those in the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that in the HF group. The hepatic UDP-glucuronyl transferase activity in the N group was lower than that of the HF group and those in the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that of the HF group. The serum total cholesterol and triglyceride contents of the HF group were significantly higher than that of the N group, and those of the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that of the HF group. The serum HDL-cholesterol contents in all groups supplemented with the ethanol extracts from red pepper seeds were significantly higher than that of the HF group. The serum LDL-cholesterol contents of the HF group were significantly higher than that of the N group, and those of the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that of the HF group. The fecal total cholesterol contents were significantly higher in the HF group compared to the N group, and those of the HEB and HEC groups were lower than that of the HF group. The fecal triglyceride contents in the N group was higher than that of the HF group, and those of the HEA, HEB and HEC groups were lower than that of the HF group. This study suggested that the ethanol extracts from red pepper seeds have powerful health benefits by the UDP-glucuronyl transferase activity and lipid metabolism.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.352-357
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• 2002

Antimutagenic effects of extracts from curry powder and its individual fourteen kinds of spices, were investigated by Ames test. The antimutagenic effects against a direct mutagen, 2-nitrofluorene(2 -NF) and two indirect mutagens, 2-anthramine(2-AT) and 2-acetamidofluorene (2-AE) in the S. typhimurium TA98 were tested. For the 2-NF, the antimutagenicity of cinnamon, fenugreek, fennel, ginger, clove, turmeric and celery seed were determined as 42, 38, 32, 28, 24, 23 and 20%, respectively. The antimutagenicity of clove against the 2-AT was the highest (116%), and followed by the order of celery seed(103%), cardamon(100%), red pepper(99%), cinnamon(92%), cumin(83%), ginger(82%), fennel(82%), coriander (71%), nutmeg(68%) and turmeric (55%). The results also showed that the antimutagenic effect of clove against the 2-AF was superior to other spices. In case of curry powder among more than 10 kinds of spices, the antimutagenenicity against the 2-AT and 2-AF showed 23% and 6%, respectively, but no effect was observed against the 2-NF.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.1357-1362
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate the extract yield, total polyphenolic compounds content, electron donating activity (EDA) and nitrite scavenging activity (NSA) of various red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) seeds. The water and ethanol extracts showed yields in the ranges of $11.30{\sim}18.93%$ and $3.00{\sim}5.25%$, respectively. Ethanol extract yield was higher than water. In the total polyphenol content, water and ethanol extracts were in the range of $10.22{\pm}1.29{\sim}25.98{\pm}0.55mg/$ and $8.00{\pm}0.57{\sim}33.99{\pm}0.09mg/g$, respectively. Also, nitrite scavenging activities were $70.11{\pm}0.71{\sim}94.07{\pm}0.86%$ and $81.93{\pm}1.77{\sim}99.90{\pm}0.70%$ for water and ethanol extracts, respectively. In the electron donating activity, water extracts showed lower activity than ethanol extracts. The electron donating activity of water extracts was in the range of $0.04{\pm}0.07{\sim}14.31{\pm}0.06%$ while that of NSA of ethanol extracts was $35.48{\pm}0.23{\sim}73.83{\pm}0.04%$.