• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.259-267
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• 2020

Snakebite is a severe medical, economic, and social problem across the world, mostly in the tropical and subtropical area. These regions of the globe have typical of the world's venomous snakes present where access to prompt treatment is limited or not available. Snake venom is a complex mixture of toxin proteins like neurotoxin and cardiotoxin, and other enzymes like phospholipase A2 (PLA2), haemorrhaging, transaminase, hyaluronidase, phosphodiesterase, acetylcholinesterase, cytolytic and necrotic toxins. Snake venom shows a wide range of biological effects like anticoagulation or platelet aggregation, hemolysis, hypotension and edema. Phospholipase A2 is the principal constituent of snake venom; it catalyzes the hydrolysis of the sn-2 position of membrane glycerophospholipids to liberate arachidonic acid, which is the precursor of eicosanoids including prostaglandins and leukotrienes. The information regarding the structure and function of the phospholipase A2 enzyme may help in treating the snakebite victims. This review article constitutes a brief description of the structure, types, mechanism occurrence, and tests of phospholipase A2 and role of components of medicinal plants used to inhibit phospholipase A2.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.96-102
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• 2009

Objectives: Traditional Korean herbal formulae are composed of multiple medicinal plants. This situation of multiple-ingredient mixtures has been considered as a major obstacle to new drug development using herbal formulae in the world market, despite the effectiveness of such mixtures. This study reviewed Liv-52 as a representative model of successful drug development using a multiple-herb mixture. Methods: All articles for Liv-52 were collected from the PubMed database. The history, composition of Liv-52, its pharmaceutical efficacy and mechanisms, and data from clinical studies including its market size were analyzed. Results: Liv-52 is composed of seven herbal plants and it is the best known in Ayurvedic medicine for treating liver disorders. Since its 1955 introduction, forty four international papers have been published based on pre-clinical and clinical trials. The efficacy and mechanisms of Liv-52 were intensively studied. Currently, Liv-52 is one of the top-selling products, with over 10 million dollars sales annually, in the world market. Conclusions: These results indicate that Korean herbal formulae could be new global drugs if scientific evidence for efficacy and standardization are produced via literature researches.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2019

Two unrecorded alien plants, Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam. and M. indicus (L.) All. (Leguminosae) were found in Korea. M. officinalis is native to Eurasia and widely distributed in agricultural regions throughout the world. M. indicus is native to Mediterranean and Southwestern Europe, and naturalized in temperate regions all over the world. These species are morphologically similar to M. suaveolens (Jeon-dong-ssa-ri). However, M. officinalis is distinguished from M. suaveolens by transverse nerved legumes, definite ovary stalks, and five to eight number of ovules in ovary. M. indicus is also distinguished from M. suaveolens by smaller size of flowers, broadly triangular calyx teeth, globose legumes, and minutely papillose seeds. The local name of M. officinalis and M. indicus were given as "Ju-reum-jeon-dong-ssa-ri" and "Jom-jeon-dong-ssa-ri" based on transverse nerved legumes and overall smaller size than M. suaveolens, respectively. The descriptions on morphological characters and photographs at the habitat of M. officinalis and M. indicus are provided.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2007

The increasing industrialization of the world has led to precipitous rise for the demand of petroleum-based fuels. The world is presently confronted with the twin crises of fossil fuel depletion and environmental pollution. The search for alternative fuels, which promise a harmonious correlation with sustainable development, energy conservation, efficiency and environmental preservation, has become highly pronounced in the present. Bioenergy is playing an increasingly important role as an alternative and renewable source of energy. Use of Bioenergy has several potential environmental advantages. The most important perhaps is reduction in life cycle greenhouse gases emissions relatives petroleum fuels, since bioenergy is derived from plants which convert Carbon dioxide ($CO_{2}$) into Carbohydrates in their growth. Bioenergy includes solid biomass, biomas and liquid bio-fuels which are fuels derived from crop plants, and include biomass that's directly burned. The two most important bio liquid fuels today are bioethanol from fermenting grain, grass, straw or wood, and biodiesel from plant seed oil.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.296-300
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• 2005

Human-induced soil salinity is becoming a major threat to agriculture across the world. This salinisation occurs in both irrigated and rain-fed agricultural zones with the highest proportions in the arid and semi-arid environments. Livestock can play an important role in the management and rehabilitation of this land. There are a range of plants that grow in saline soils and these have been used as animal feed. In many situations, animal production has been poor as a result of low edible biomass production, low nutritive value, depressed appetite, or a reduction in efficiency of energy use. Feeding systems are proposed that maximise the feeding value of plants growing on saline land and integrate their use with other feed resources available within mixed livestock and crop farming systems. Salt-tolerant pastures, particularly the chenopod shrubs, have moderate digestible energy and high crude protein. For this reason they represent a good supplement for poor quality pastures and crop residues. The use of salt-tolerant pasture systems not only provides feed for livestock but also may act as a bio-drain to lower saline water tables and improve the soil for growth of alternative less salt tolerant plants. In the longer term there are opportunities to identify and select more appropriate plants and animals for saline agriculture.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2007

Hydrogen and electricity are expected to dominate the world energy system in the long term. The world currently consumes about 50 million metric tons of hydrogen per year, with the bulk of it being consumed by the chemical and refining industries. The demand for hydrogen is expected to increase, especially if the U.S. and other countries shift their energy usage towards a hydrogen economy, with hydrogen consumed as an energy commodity by the transportation, residential and commercial sectors. However, there is strong motivation to not use fossil fuels in the future as a feedstock for hydrogen production, because the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a byproduct and fossil fuel prices are expected to increase significantly. An advanced reactor technology receiving considerable international interest for both electricity and hydrogen production, is the modular helium reactor (MHR), which is a passively safe concept that has evolved from earlier high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) designs. For hydrogen production, this concept is referred to as the H2-MHR. Two different hydrogen production technologies are being investigated for the H2-MHR; an advanced sulfur-iodine (SI) thermochemical water splitting process and high-temperature electrolysis (HTE). This paper describes pre-conceptual design descriptions and economic evaluations of full-scale, nth-of-a-kind SI-Based and HTE-Based H2-MHR plants. Hydrogen production costs for both types of plants are estimated to be approximately $2 per kilogram.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.379-387
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• 2010

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is an important crop due to its high oil content in the seed. Recently, the demand for the improvement of crop for biodisel energy source is increased as oil prices in the world has increased dramatically. Until now, oilseed rape breeding was carried out by cross-hybridization between different varieties and related germplasms. However, like as many other crops, the application of tissue culture and gene transformation systems has been introduced into oilseed rape breeding program including the development of transgenic canola plants. In this study, we reviewed a history of tissue culture and genetic transformation research in oilseed rape plants and indicated some important aspects for the production of transgenic oilseed rape plants.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-30
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• 2022

Background: Bees and flowering plants associations were initially began during the early Cretaceous, 120 million years ago. This coexistence has led to a mutual relationship where the plant serves as food and in return, the bee help them their reproduction. Animals pollinate about 75% of food crops worldwide, with bees as the world's primary pollinator. In general, bees rely on flower scents to locate blooming flowers as visual clue is limited and also their host plants from a distance. In this review, an attempt is made to collect some relevant 107 published papers from three scientific databases, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science database, covering the period from 1959 to 2021. Results: Flowering plants are well documented to actively emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, only a few of them are important for eliciting behavioral responses in bees. In this review, fifty-three volatile organic compounds belonging to different class of compounds, mainly terpenoids, benzenoids, and volatile fatty acid derivatives, is compiled here from floral scents that are responsible for eliciting behavioral responses in bees. Bees generally use honest floral signals to locate their host plants with nectar and pollen-rich flowers. Thus, honest signaling mechanism plays a key role in maintaining mutualistic plant-pollinator associations. Conclusions: Considering the fact that floral scents are the primary attractants, understanding and identification of VOCs from floral scent in plant-pollinator networks are crucial to improve crop pollination. Interestingly, current advances in both VOCs scent gene identification and their biosynthetic pathways make it possible to manipulate particular VOCs in plant, and this eventually may lead to increase in crop productivity.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 2010

Centipedegrass is a warm season turfgrass in the world. Chlorogenic acid (CA) is one of the important compounds present in the leaf of centipedegrass and already known as an antioxidant, CA has become a key resistance against insect pests and bacteria pathogens of agricultural and horticultural plants during seedling stage. Furthermore, CA is accumulated by abiotic stress such as an UV irradiation. In present study, we investigated enhancement of the level of CA upon gamma irradiation in centipedegrass. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) data analysis showed an approximately increasing of the CA levels from among the irradiated samples. However, plants irradiated at 50 Gy showed a constant increase in the CA level (0.0066 to $0.114mg\;ml^{-1}$ and 0.0258 to $0.2211mg\;ml^{-1}$, respectively) from $3^{rd}$ to $15^{th}$ day among one and three month irradiated plants compared to control. The present study, indicates an increase in the CA level upon gamma irradiation, suggests strategy for conferment of strong resistance in seedling stage plants by gamma irradiation as simplicity and cheaply method.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.947-955
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• 2017

Herbicidin A is a potent herbicide against dicotyledonous plants as well as an antibiotic against phytopathogens. In this study, fermentation parameters for herbicidin A production in submerged culture of Streptomyces scopuliridis M40 were investigated. The herbicidin A concentration varied with the C/N ratio. High C/N ratios (>4) resulted in a herbicidin A production of more than 900 mg/l, whereas maximally 600 mg/l was obtained at ratios between 1 and 3.5. In 5-L batch fermentation, there was a positive correlation between the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and herbicidin A production. Once the OUR increased, the substrate consumption rate increased, leading to an increase in volumetric productivity. Mechanical shear force affected the hyphal morphology and OUR. When the medium value of hyphal size ranged from 150 to $180{\mu}m$, high volumetric production of herbicidin A was obtained with OUR values >137mg $O_2/l{\cdot}h$. The highest herbicidin A concentration of 956.6 mg/l was obtained at 500 rpm, and coincided with the highest relative abundance of hyphae of $100-200{\mu}m$ length and the highest OUR during cultivation. Based on a constant impeller tip speed, which affects hyphal morphology, herbicidin A production was successfully scaled up from a 5-L jar to a 500-L pilot vessel.