• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.307-313
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• 2018

Alopecia cause psychological stress due to their effect on appearance. Thus, the global market size of the alopecia treatment products are growing quickly. Timosaponin A III is the well known active ingredient of Anemarrhenae Rhizoma. In this study, we investigated and compared the binding affinity of timosaponin A III with finasteride (5-beta reductase antagonist) and minoxidil (androgen receptor antagonist) on the target protein active site by in silico computational docking studies. The three dimensional crystallographic structure of 5-beta reductase (PDB ID : 3G1R) and androgen receptor (PDB ID: 4K7A) was obtained from PDB database. In silico computational autodocking analysis was performed using PyRx, Autodock Vina, Discovery Studio Version 4.5, and NX-QuickPharm option based on scoring functions. The timosaponin A III showed optimum binding affinity (docking energy) with 5-beta reductase as -12.20 kcal/mol as compared to the finasteride (-11.70 kcal/mol) and with androgen receptor as -9.00 kcal/mol as compared to the minoxidil (-7.40 kcal/mol). The centroid X, Y, Z grid position of the timosaponin A III on the 5-beta reductase was similar (overlap) to the finasteride, but the X, Y, Z centroid grid of the timosaponin A III on the androgen receptor was significantly far from the minoxidil centroid position. These results significantly indicated that timosaponin A III could be more potent antagonist to the 5-beta reductase and androgen receptor. Therefore, the extract of Anemarrhenae Rhizoma or timosaponin A III containing biomaterials can substitute the finasteride and minoxidil and can be applied to the alopecia protecting product and related industrial fields.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.1351-1356
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• 2013

To enhance the utilization of Allium hookeri (AH) as a food, characteristics of AH roots and leaves cultivated under open field and greenhouse conditions were investigated. The moisture content of the roots and leaves were 81.05 to 84.18% and 88.85 to 90.12%, respectively. The moisture content of AH cultivated in the open field was 2 to 3% lower than the moisture content of AH cultivated in the greenhouse for both roots and leaves. The content of nitrogen-free extract, carbohydrates, was 13.49 to 16.20% in the roots and 7.08 to 7.79% in the leaves. The main mineral generated from both open field and greenhouse cultivation was potassium, at 503.98 to 512.08 mg% in leaves. The free sugar content of roots cultivated in the open field was four times higher than the content in the leaves, and roots cultivated in the greenhouse contained three times lower free sugar than the leaves. In particular, the fructose content of roots cultivated in the open field was about 12 times higher than roots cultivated in the greenhouse. The crude saponin and total polyphenol content was higher in leaves than roots, and was higher in the open field than the greenhouse. The $IC_{50}$ for DPPH radical scavenging activity was highest, 2.74 mg/mL, in 70% MeOH extracts of AH leaves cultivated in the greenhouse. Water and 70% MeOH extracts of AH leaves cultivated in the greenhouse showed no cytotoxicity to RAW 264.7 cells. Water extracts of AH leaves cultivated in the open field markedly inhibited the production of the inflammatory mediator nitric oxide. These results suggest that AH may be used as the material of health functional food.