• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.24-29
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• 2012

A total of 187 samples of leafy vegetables and fruits were acquired at traditional markets and department stores in Seoul, Korea. Samples were tested for microorganism distributions and for the presence of pathogenic bacteria. The aerobic mesophilic counts ranged between 2.5 and 9.4 log CFU/g, with the highest count recorded from the dropwort. Counts of psychrotrophic microorganisms were as high as those of the mesophilic microorganisms. Total coliform populations between 1.0 and 7.8 log CFU/g were found in 90.9% of the samples. Microbiological counts for fruits were very low. $Escherichia$ $coli$ was isolated in 24 (12.8%) samples. $Staphylococcus$ $aureus$ and $Clostridium$ $perfringens$ contamination were found in 15 (8.0%) and 20 (10.7%) samples. $Salmonella$ species and $Listeria$ $monocytogenes$ were detected in 2.7 and 0.5% of samples, respectively. Among the total 187 samples, 8 samples were contaminated by more than two pathogens. $E.$ $coli$ O157:H7 was not detected in any of the samples. The microbial contamination levels determined in the present study may be used as the primary data to execute microbial risk assessment of fresh vegetables and fruits.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2004

New plant viral diseases are being reported every year. However, most of the plant viruses are found on nonwoody plants, such as cereals, vegetables and flowering plants, and relatively few are known on woody trees. On the other hand, 17 viruses have been reported on 11 species of woody plants in Korea, so far. Most of the viral diseases of woody plants are have been reported on fruit trees or ornamental trees. The reason is that the fruit trees or ornamental trees is more important than forest trees in economical aspects. Since many known plant viruses attack several species of nonwoody and woody plants, it is likely that a larger number of viral diseases of woody plants will be discovered as more research is conducted. This paper is an overview about the viral diseases of woody plants reported in Korea.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.299-302
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• 1998

V8 juice agar (V8A) has been the most popular and commonly used medium for growth and reproduction of Phytophthora. However, frequently V8 vegetable juice is not available or difficult to obtain in Korea. We therefore developed widely accessible medium to substitute for V8A using domestically available five juices; two carrot (KCJA), two tomato (KTJA) and a vegetable-mix (KVMA). To prepare 10% juice medium, each vegetable juice 100 ml, DW 900 ml, agar 17 g and Ca CO3 0.5∼1.0g were supplemented to adjust pH ca. 6.0 Mycelial growth of P. cactorum and P. capsici on KTJA and KVMA was equally effective as V8A for the growth of P. cactorum, P. capsici, P. drechsleri and P. nicotianae under light. Sporangial production of P cactorum, P. capsici and P. nicotianae on KTJA and KVMA was as good as V8A and slightly better than CKJA, but the difference was insignificant by P. cactorum and P. nicotianae. The four fungi successfully formed oospores on all the media although the numbers were varied among species and media. While KTJA was the best for P. cactorum and P. capsici, V8A was the best for P. capsici and P. drechsleri. However, KCJA stimulated highest number of oopspores of P. nicotianae. Overall results showed that domestically available vegetable juices were highly effective on growth and reproduction of Phytophthora and comparable to V8 juice. Therefore, the domestic juice medium can be successfully replaced V8A in Phytophthora study.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17
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• pp.83-88
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• 2001

Most reactive oxygen species (ROS) are free radicals and implicated in the development of a number of disease processes including artherosclerosis, neurodegenerative disorders, aging and cancer. ROS are byproducts of a number of in vivo metabolic processes and are formed deliberately as part of nor-mal inflammatory response. On the other hand, ROS are generated either as by products of oxygen reduction during xenobiotic metabolism or are liberated as the result of the futile redox cycling of the chemical agents including several chemical carcinogens. A better understanding of the mechanisms of free radical toxicity may yield valuable clue to risks associated with chemical exposures that leading to the development of chronic diseases including cancer. The molecular biology of ROS-mediated alterations in gene expression, signal transduction and carcinognesis is one of the important subjects in free radical toxicology. Epidemiological studies suggest that high intake of vegetables and fruits are associated with the low incidence of human cancer. Many phytopolyphenols such as tea polyphenols, curcumin, resveratrol, apigenin, genistein and other flavonoids have been shown to be cancer chemopreventive agents. Most of these compounds are strong antioxidant and ROS scavengers in vitro and effective inducers of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutatse, catalase and glutathione peroxidase in vivo. Several cellular transducers namely receptor tyrosine kinase, protein kinase C, MAPK, PI3K, c-jun, c-fos, c-myc, NFkB, IkB kinase, iNOS, COX-2, Bcl-2, Bax, etc have been shown to be actively modulated by phyto-polyphenols. Recent development in free radical toxicology have provided strong basis for understanding the action mechanisms of cancer chemoprevention.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.515-519
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• 2004

Listeria spp. were isolated from a total of 402 naturally contaminated domestic ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetable samples by the conventional Food and Drug Administration protocol and confinned by API-Listeria kit. Also, the susceptibility to 12 antibiotics, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for virulence gene of pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes isolates, and in vitro virulence assay using myeloma and hybridoma cells from murine and human sources were tested. Among the samples, 17 samples (4.2％) were found to be contaminated with Listeria species. Among the 17 strains of Listeria spp. isolates, only 2 strains (11.8％) of L. monocytogenes and 15 strains (88.2％) of L. innocua were identified. Antibiotic susceptibility test showed that the Listeria spp. isolates were very susceptible to the antibiotics tested, except for nalidixic acid. Among 17 strains of Listeria spp., PCR analysis showed that 2 strains of L. monocytogenes isolates proved to have a virulence hly gene, but none of L. innocua had the hly gene. Also, hybridoma Ped-2E9 cells assay showed that only L. monocytogenes isolates killed approximately 95-99％ hybridoma cells after 6 h, but L. innocua isolates had about 0-5％ lethal effect. These results indicate that PCR assay with hly primer or hybridoma Ped-2E9 cells assay could be used as a good monitoring tool or in vitro virulence test for L. monocytogenes.

• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.519-525
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• 1998

Intraspecific genetic diversity of Korean isolates of Phytophthora drechsleri was investigated based on PCR-RFLP of rDNA along with closely related species in the genus; P. cryptogea, P. melonis, P. erythroseptica, P. cinnamomi, P. cambivora and P. cactorum. Gene regions of nuclear small subunit and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) in rDNA were amplified with polymerase chain reaction and digested with 9 restriction enzymes. Phytophthora species was readily differentiated from each other based on the digestion patterns, however, P. cryptogea was not separable from some isolates of P. drechsleri. Twenty one isolates of P. drechsleri originated from 15 host plants were divided into three distinct groups designated as PdG1, PdG2 and PdG3, respectively. Four isolates in PdG1 were originated from green vegetables and tomato and nine isolates in PdG2 were mainly isolated from medicinal plants. The two groups showed 95.3% homology and four isolates of P. cyptogea came under the groups. However, Eight isolates in PdG3 collected from cucurbits were clearly differentiated from those of PdG1 and PdG2 by 66.5% homology, but completely matched with a Taiwan isolate of P. melonis. Results indicated that three distinct groups exist in Korean isolates of P. drechleri and each group has host preference. In addition, reclassification of the cucurbits isolates are reserved because of their distinct genetic characters from other intraspecific groups in P. drechsleri.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.251-259
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• 2011

Cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) is known to be carcinogenic compound. CSC contains many organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and heterocyclic amine compounds (HCAs). Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are also generated and induce oxidative DNA damage during the metabolism of CSC. The rat microsome mediated and DNA repair enzyme treated comet assays together with conventional comet assay were performed to evaluate the mechanisms of CSC genotoxicity. The organic extract of CSC induced oxidative and microsome mediated DNA damage. Vitamin C as a model antioxidant reduced DNA damage in endonuclease III treated comet assay. One of flavonoid, galangin as a CYP1A1 inhibitor, reduced DNA damage in the presence of S-9 mixture. The ethanol extracts of the mixed vegetables (BV) or the mixed fruits (BF) showed potent inhibitory effects against CSC induced DNA damage with oxidative DNA lesions and in the prescence of S-9 mixture. These results indicate that BV and BF could prevent CSC-induced cellular DNA damage by inhibiting oxidative stress and suppressing cytochrome P450 in mammalian cells.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.70-78
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• 2021

Identifying the extracellular metabolites of microorganisms in fresh vegetables is industrially useful for assessing the quality of processed foods. Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp. carotovorum (PCC) is a plant pathogenic bacterium that causes soft rot disease in cabbages. This microbial species in plant tissues can emit specific volatile molecules with odors that are characteristic of the host cell tissues and PCC species. In this study, we used headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) to identify volatile compounds (VCs) in PCC-inoculated cabbage at different storage temperatures. HS-SPME-GC-MS allowed for recognition of extracellular metabolites in PCC-infected cabbages by identifying specific volatile metabolic markers. We identified 4-ethyl-5-methylthiazole and 3-butenyl isothiocyanate as markers of fresh cabbages, whereas 2,3-butanediol and ethyl acetate were identified as markers of soft rot in PCC-infected cabbages. These analytical results demonstrate a suitable approach for establishing non-destructive plant pathogen-diagnosis techniques as alternatives to standard methods, within the framework of developing rapid and efficient analytical techniques for monitoring plant-borne bacterial pathogens. Moreover, our techniques could have promising applications in managing the freshness and quality control of cabbages.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.349-358
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• 2009

The potential use of 4 plant species, Astragalus membranaceus var. membranaceus, Senna occidentalis, Dianthus longicalyx and Plantago asiatica, as new sprout vegetables with high antioxidant function was examined in the present experiments. Seeds of above plants were allowed to germinate under light condition, and seedlings were maintained under dark condition for shoot growth in length for contain period of time. Then the seedlings were put under light for photosynthesis (greening treatment) for the period of 0${\sim}$3 days. Samples were collected to analyze the changes in antioxidant levels and activity, and it was observed that antioxidant substances were affected by greening treatments, depending on plant species. In A. membranaceus, the contents of total polyphenol was highest with no greening, total flavonoids with 3 days greening, DPPH radical scavenging effects with no greening, ABTS scavenging with 1 day greening, $Fe^{2+}$ chelating effects with no greening, and inhibitory activity against linoleic acid peroxidation with 3 day greening. In S. occidentalis, highest levels of antioxidant activity and radical scavenging effects were obtained by 2 day greening, $Fe^{2+}$ chelating effects by no greening and inhibitory activity against linoleic acid peroxidation by 1 day greening. In D. longicalyx, highest levels of antioxidant activity and $Fe^{2+}$ chelating effects were obtained by 2 day greening, $Fe^{2+}$ chelating effects by no greening and inhibitory activity against linoleic acid peroxidation by 1 day greening. In D. longicalyx, highest levels antioxidant activity and $Fe^{2+}$ chelating effects were observed with 3 day greening, and highest radical scavenging effects and inhibitory activity against linoleic acid peroxidation with no greening treatment. In P. asiatica, antioxidant activity and radicals scavenging effects were highest with 2 day greening, whereas highest chelating effects was obtained with no greening and highset inhibitory activity against linoleic acid peroxidation with 3 day greening. As the length of greening treatments influenced the antioxidant levels and function in plant species tested in this experiments, different culture methods are recommended for different plant species to get maximum health benefits out of sprout vegetables.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.324-328
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• 1998

We screened the methanol extracts from 133 plant species growing in Korea for antimicrobial activity against enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli 0157 : H7. Those are selected from three plant grouping ; traditional medicinal herbs, edible plants, and flowers. They were tested by disk diffusion assay. From evaluation of the inhibition zone diameter of microbial growth, we found that the flower extract of Rhododendron Schilpenbachii Max had the most significant antimicrobial activity against this bacteria. Extracts from most of the vegetables and plants did not show antimicrobial activity except for the leaves of Ginkgo biloba L. and seeds of Prunus Dallicina L. did not show antimicrobial activity except for the leaves of Ginkgo biloba L. and the seeds of Prunus sallicina L.