Background : Platycodon grandiflorum has been used as famous medicinal vegetable and traditional medicine in Korea. Platycodon grandiflorum is used more for vegetable than it is used as a medicine. Proper storage conditons are required for distribution of Platycodon grandiflorum as vegetables. The purpose of this study was to find the appropriate storage temperature. Methods and Results : 2-years old Platycodon grandiflorum cultivated in Herbal Crop Research, RDA Eumseong was used. They were packed with plastic container box of 45 × 70 × 30 ㎝ and then stored at –2℃, 2℃, 5℃, 25℃, humidity 80 - 82%. During the storage, hardness, L a b values, weight loss, decay rate were measured every 30 days as quality indices. During the storage period, L value decreased but a and b values increased and same pattern was observed at all storage temperatures. Hardness decreased and same pattern was also observed at all storage temperature. Under constant humidity conditions, weight loss was larger at higher temperature. The higher the temperature, the larger the deviation at weight loss. There were little decay but 25℃ temperature stored showed that dacay rate was higher with time over. Conclusion : The favorable temperature for storage is –2℃ - 2℃ while maintaining constant humidity.

Background : Cnidium officinale Makino is a perennial herb of the family Umbelliferae, and an important traditional oriental medicinal plant in China, Japan and Korea. Cnidii Rhizoma, the dried rhizome of C. officinale have been used as traditional oriental medicine in Korea. It has been shown that the cnidii rhizomes are used in the treatment of pain, inflammation, menstrual disturbance, and anti-vitamin deficiency disease, and also act as a blood pressure depressant. In this study, we anticipated to establish the mass propagation system of C. officinale, which is a high economic value as medicinal herb, by plant tissue culture to solve the problem of root stocks contamination. Methods and Results : The whole study was carried out in the department of Herbal crop research, Eumseong, RDA. In this study, C. officinale root bud was used as a explant and it was surface sterilized by 1% sodium hypochlorite for 3 minutes, then several times washed with ddH2O. Multiple shoots were induction them on MS, B5, SH media with 0.1 - 2 ㎎/ℓ auxin (NAA, IBA) and cytokine (BA, Zeatin). In this study we obtained, 7.4 multi-shoots per an explant, and the shoot growth was also favorable in the presence of 0.2 ㎎/ℓ Zeatin. Subsequent transfer of these regenerated shoots on 1/2 SH media resulted in root formation. Rooted plantlets were able to grow in soil after a short period of acclimatization. Conclusion : This experiment was comducted to identify the optimal in vitro propagation condition of C. officinale.

Background : Rehmannia glutinosa belonging to the family of Scrophulariaceae have been utilized as a traditional medicine. This study was conducted to elucidate an effect of air curing for seed rhizome of R. glutinosa on storaging ability and yield. Methods and Results : The root of R. glutinosa cultivar (Dagang) was harvested in the end of November. Seed rhizomes were air curing for one to seven days then wrapped with newspaper and further stored in a plastic container box at 1℃. The weight loss and decay rates were significantly lower in seed air curing treatment than in untreated. Especially, the decay rate of control was approximately 50% at 120 days after storage. But, the decay rate of all air curing treatment groups was less than 1%. Also air curing led to an increase in germination rate of seeds and root yield compared with untreatment. Taken together, the best air curing treatment period was 3 days, under the that conditions, germination rate and yield were 88.7% and 2,185 ㎏/10 a, respectively. Conclusion : This study has successfully demonstrated that the air curing of rhizome as a seeds led to considerable increasement of both storaging ability and yield in R. glutinosa.

FLOWERING TIME CONTROL PROTEIN, FPA gene encode RNA Recognition Motif (RRM) domain protein and plays important roles in flowering time control in Arabidopsis. Floral transition is significant for reproductive products in all flowering plants. However, little is known about the functions of Medicago autonomous pathway gene. We had cloned the FPA gene on Medicago based on the sequence similarity of Arabidopsis FPA sequence. The RT-qPCR analysis of MtFPA expression patterns showed that the MtFPA transcripts accumulated ubiquitously in roots, leaves, stems, flowers, and pods. When fused to the green fluorescence protein, MtPFA-GFP was localized in the nucleus as speckle pattern of protoplast from Arabidopsis. To examine the function of MtFPA, 35S::MtFPA transgenic plants were generated in Arabidopsis late flowering mutant background, fpa-2. Overexpression of MtFPA specifically caused early flowering under long day conditions compared with non-transgenic plants. In MtFPA transgenic lines, AtFLC expression were down-regulated whereas the floral integrators, AtFT and AtSOC1 were up-regulated as compare with control plant. As these results, MtFPA suggest that is a functional ortholog of the Arabidopsis and may play an important role in the regulation of flowering transition in Medicago.

Soybean self-sufficiency in Korea was 22.5% in year 2011, and as free trade agreement between Korea and US comes into effect, the amount of soybean importation increases. In 2012, paddy field soybean cultivation was over 0.1 million ha and it is expected to increase continuously due to rise in market price of soybean. Moreover, double cropping system including paddy field soybean is widely adopted nationwide, but studies on appropriate cultivar for this environment are insufficient. In this research, the effect of planting date and different cultivars on soybean growth and yield was investigated for three planting dates (June 20, July 5, and July 20) with 15 cultivars. According to ANOVA test, soybean yield was significantly different depending on sowing date and cultivars and interaction between sowing date and cultivars was also detected, meaning each of cultivars resulted different yield depending on sowing date. When planted on July 20, stem length, nod number, branch number and grain weight was decreased because of short growing period, resulting in yield decrease. Percentage of yield obtained from July 20 in contrast to that of June 20 showed that Pungwon, Nampung and Daepung recorded the least yield decrease and the highest yield when planted late. Evaluation of late-sowing-adaptable soybean cultivar in paddy field is now being carried on following last year.