This study evaluated the germination rate of Rheum palmatum L. in Korea as affected by storage temperature, germination temperature, and a soaking treatment. The germination rate of R. palmatum L. stored at various conditions for 8 weeks was 〉 60%. The highest germination rate occurred at 25℃. The germination point of R. palmatum L. with soaking was started 1 day after application, and non soaked seeds germinated in 2 days. When R. palmatum L. was soaked with water, the germination rate was lower, but mean germination velocity was the highest. These results may help our understanding of variations in germination characteristics for seeds treated under different germination conditions.
An important factor in the production of organic ginseng is the control of Alternaria blight and anthracnose, which mostly affect the leaves in the summer. We compared the effects of a lime-bordeaux mixture (LBM) and agricultural chemicals on the growth characteristics and ginsenoside content in 4-year-old ginseng plants when they were sprayed at 15-day intervals from mid-June to the end of September. The increases in leaf length, and survive-leaf ratio in plants sprayed with LBM were greater than the increases of the control plants, but less than those of agricultural chemicals treatment. The root weight per plant in the plants sprayed with LBM increased more distinctly than that in the control plants, while it was significantly lower than that in plants sprayed with agricultural chemicals. The root yield in plants sprayed with LBM increased by 21% compared to the root yield in the control plants, but decreased by 7% compared to that in plants sprayed with agricultural chemicals because of the decreases in leaf area and survive-leaf ratio. Spraying of LBM had a significant effect on the ginsenoside contents. The total ginsenoside content was highest in the control plants and lowest in the plants sprayed with agricultural chemicals and total ginsenoside contents was great relative to survive-leaf ratio and root weight.
Guava (Psidium guajava) contain a great deal of polyphenol compound and work on the treatment of Diabetes mellitus effectively. In this study, the bioactivities of aqueous extract (GLEx) of guava leaf were investigated. Total phenolic contents of GLEx was 266.9 mg tan/g. The effects of GLEx on digestive enzymes, α-amylase, maltase and sucrase were investigated. IC50 values of GLEx against α-amylase, maltase and sucrase were 0.65 mg/ml, 2.0 mg/ml and 3.5 mg/ml respectively. The effect of GLEx on oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed in normal ICR mouse, control (dstilled water) and GLEx (aqueous extract of Guava leaf) were co-administered orally with glucose, showed reducing effect on the blood glucose level. The guava is likely to useful for prevention or improvement of hyperglycemia by lowering the blood glucose level and inhibiting glycoside hydrolase activity.
Effects of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) on the shoot and bulb growth of wild garlic (Allium victorialis var. platyphyllum) were studied by adopting in vitro culture. These macronutrients influenced the growth of both the shoot and bulb of garlic depending upon their application doses. A minimum of 3% potassium nitrate (KNO3) as a source of nitrogen was found to be critical for shoot elongation while higher concentrations were inhibitory. Garlic bulb growth was profuse on the usual KNO3 strength and sucrose (7%), followed by KNO3 (9.4 mM) supplement. On providing 41.22 mM ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) as nitrogen source highest shoot growth was observed while 82.45 mM NH4NO3 as a source of nitrogen supported high bulb growth. With regard to potassium a good shoot growth was observed in medium that contained 0.31 mM KH2PO4 and 3% sucrose, while bulb growth was high on 2.5 mM KH2PO4 and 7% sucrose. These experiments may thus direct the development of excellent growth conditions for the commercial production of edible wild garlic.
In this study, to develop hair growth agents using natural products which has excellent ability to promote hair growth effect and fewer side effect, animal experiment and clinical trials was performed to evaluate hair growth promotion effect of herbal product containing Rosa mutiflora roots extracts as a main component (RMHP). 4-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were removed the dorsal hair using thioglycolate, and applied 15% EtOH solution as a negative control, 5% minoxidil as a positive control and RMHP to dorsal skin. In the results of macroscopy and photo-interpretation, RMHP group recorded 100% (+++++) of hair growth was proved to significantly stimulate hair growth against 80% (++++) negative control group. 37 patients were treated with RMHP and evaluated the therapeutic effect at 16 weeks. Hair density was significantly increased at 16 weeks after applying RMHP (125.0±4.9 FU/cm2) compared to before treatment (104.3±4.7 FU/cm2, p 〈 0.05), and hair thickness were also significantly increased (0.066±0.003 mm) than before treatment (0.055±0.002 mm, p 〈 0.05). The result of clinical photo-interpretation using 7-point rating scale assessment, after 16 weeks clinical symptoms were evaluated to significantly improve with 1.23±0.05 (p 〈 0.05). Therefore, the results of this study were observed that RMHP have hair loss prevention effect and hair growth promotion effect to hair loss patients.
This study compared the contents of low molecular ginsenoside according to fermentation process in low grade fresh ginseng. Low grade fresh ginseng was directly inoculated with a 24 h seed culture of Bifidobacterium Longum B6., Lactobacillus casei., and incubated at 36℃ for 72 h. Bifidobacterium Longum B6 was specifically was found to show the best growth on 3,255×106 CFU/ml after 48 h of fermentation. The content of ginsenoside Rb1, Re and Rd were decreased with the fermentation but ginsenoside Rh2 and Rg2 increased after fermentation process. In the case of low molecular ginsenoside conversion yields were 56.07% of Rh2, 12.03% of Rg3 and 77.11% of Rg2, respectively. In addition, compound-K was irregular conversion yield as long as 72 h of fermentation. This results indicate that fermentation process could increase the low molecular ginsenoside in low grade fresh ginseng.
When ginseng seedlings are cultured in paddy fields, quality degradation and yield reduction are induced by severe plant loss with chlorosis on leaves occurred physiological disorder by excessive salt and poor drainage, rusty-root occurrence, and root rot etc. Accordingly, in order to solve these problems, this study was performed to investigate the treatment method, concentrations and time of activated ion calcium as environment-friendly agricultural materials. Activated ion calcium is an enriched and purified water-soluble mineral calcium component for absorbing quickly into plant as a highly functional calcium and it is an alkaline calcium of 37% (370 ml/1 l) concentration with pH 13. Treatment method was that ginseng seeds were sown after removing water in the shade after seed immersion for 1 minute with active ion calcium of 20-fold diluted solution, and then irrigated 4l per 3.3 m2 with 200-fold, 400-fold, and 600-fold diluted solution before emergence on late March, and supplied 1 time on leaves with 500-fold diluted solution in June and July respectively. The disease rate by treatment of activated ion calcium was that on the treatment of soil irrigated with 200-fold diluted solution compared to non-treated soil, damping-off was 33%, anthracnose was 100% reduced and the occurrence rate of rusty-root was 30% reduced. In addition, when active ion calcium of 200-fold diluted solution were soil irrigated, first and second grade ginseng were respectively 26% and 22% produced more, compared with control.
The feature of asthma are airway inflammation (AI), reversible airway obstruction, and an increased sensitivity to bronchoconstricting agents, elevated airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), excess production of Th2 cytokines, and eosinophil accumulation in the lungs. This study was performed to investigate if oral administration of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi water extracts (SBG) have the antiasthmatic potential for the treatment of asthma. Asthmatic HI and AHR were induced by systemic sensitization to ovalbumin (OVA) with intratracheal instillation with 0.1 mg/mL of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) suspension once a week for 10 weeks in BALB/c mice. SBG was orally administered with the concentraion of 200 mg/kg 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Long-term SBG treatment suppressed the eosinophil infiltration into airways from blood, the asthmatic AI and AHR by attenuating the production of cytokine IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, histamine and OVA-specific IgE. Our data suggest that SBG has inhibitory effects on AI and AHR in a mouse model of asthma, may act as a potential Th2 cytokine antagonist, and may have a therapeutic effect on allergic asthma.
This study is part of research to develop the technology for managing major medicinal crops after harvest. We studied the optimal germination conditions of Cynanchum wilfordii (Maxim.) Hemsl. The mean germination time (MGT) of C. wilfordii seeds was higher after soaking for 4 days after storage at 5℃ for 8 weeks, than with germination at 25℃ (3 days). However, the germinative energy (GE) decreased as the number of days soaking increased. The greatest germination rate (83.3±8.8%) was at 25℃ with no soaking of seeds stored at -20℃ for 8 weeks. Based on these results, we characterized the germination conditions of a major medicinal crop.