The objectives of this study were to find out the plant to enhance immune activity among 42 kinds of foods frequently consumed by the Korean elderly consisting of 5 food groups and 5 wild plants. Each sample was assessed the immunoactive effect by measuring NFkB/ AP1 gene expression, nitric oxide and cytokine production in RAW-Blue™ cell. Soybean sprouts of 47 plants showed the highest NF-κB/AP1 gene expression at the level of 1.13 ± 0.03 (O.D. 650 nm) and Soritae, sweet potato, banana, apple, garlic, crown daisy, cabbage and Ailanthus altissima also had high activity of NF-kB/AP1 gene in RAW-Blue™ cell stimulated by LPS. NO production of Ailanthus altissima was significantly higher than that of other plants and 16 plants of glutinous sorghum, black rice, Seoritae, Heuktae, sweet potato, banana, apple, garlic, mungbean sprouts, spinach, crown daisy, young pumpkin, cabbage, soybean sprouts, Actinidia arguta and Aster scaber were the next best activity. The above results selected 17 out of 47 plant samples. Moreover, soybean sprouts was significantly shown to increase TNF-α (1,509.55 ± 1.38 pg/mL) and IL-1β (54.56 ± 1.08 pg/mL) cytokines in comparison with RAW-Blue cell stimulated by LPS. According to the results of in vitro evaluation, the ethanol extract of soybean sprout increased the production of immune-enhancing cytokines by proliferation of macrophages. In addition, NF-kB transcription factor activity and NO production ability were excellent, and it was selected as a material having excellent immunological activity.

Introduction
 Materials and Methods
  실험재료
  에탄올추출물 제조
  세포 배양
  대식세포 증식능 측정
  대식세포의 활성화 측정
  Nitric oxide 생성량 측정
  Cytokine 생성량 측정
  통계적 처리
 Results
  대식세포 증식능 측정
  NF-κB/AP1 전사인자 활성화
  Nitric oxide 생성량
  Cytokine 생성량
 Discussion
 References

• Na-Young Gil(Fermented and Processed Food Science Division, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA)
• Sang-Myeong Lee(Division of Biotechnology, College of Environmental and Bioresource Sciences, Chonbuk National University)
• Ji-Young Mun(Fermented and Processed Food Science Division, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA)
• Soo-Hwan Yeo(Fermented and Processed Food Science Division, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA)
• So-Young Kim(Fermented and Processed Food Science Division, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA) Corresponding author