Ginseng(Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) is important medicinal plant but requires 4-year cultivation for root harvest because of slow growth. In contrast, ginseng hairy roots induced by introducing Ri-plasmid of Agrobacterium rhizogenes into genomic DNA of plant cells show vigorous growth, and the hairy roots produce the same or more saponins than natural ginseng roots. Therefore, hairy roots can be used for commercial purposes. The present study was carried out to induce hairy roots with both active growth and high saponin contents. Numerous hairy roots of Panax ginseng were obtained after root disks of three-year old roots were infected with Agrobacterium rhizogenes R1000 A4T in dark condition after one month of culture. About 3 hundred lines of hairy roots were selected according as morphological characters on medium with carbenicillin. After pre-selection of fifteen lines of hairy roots with active growth, KGHR-l and KGHR-8 lines were finally selected which had characters of high content of ginsenoside-Rd and ginsenoside-Re, respectively. The optimum growth of hairy roots was achieved in the culture of 1/2 MS liquid medium in dark (22 ℃) under 60 rpm gyratory shaking. Hairy roots grew well in 5L Erlenmeyer flasks, lL roller drums, 10L jar-fermenters, and especially in 20L air-lift culture vessels.

The objective of this study is to investigate morphological characteristics of seeds and effects of environmental factors such as light and temperature on the germination and seedling growth of Peucedanum japonicum Thunberct, Which belongs to Umbelliferae and useful for on oriental medicine materials. Seed shape of Peucedanum japonicum Thunberct is ovate. Color of seed coats varied from yellow to dark brown. Seed size is 5.3mm in length, 4.2mm in width. One thousand-seed weight of Peucedanum japonicum Thunberct is 4,010mg. Optimum temperatures for seed germination and seedling growth range from 20 to 25℃.

To determine as optimal sowing time of forage rape in spring time in southern areas of Korea, forage rape cv. Velox, the highest yielding variety among introduced varieties of forage rape, was grown under five different sowing times. Yield components such as plant length, number of branches and number of leaves etc. were higher at the sowing time of Mar. 15 and Mar. 25. The plants sown at Mar. 15 and Mar. 25 also showed highest fresh and dry matter yield. When plants were grown under later sowing time, they showed higher values in content of crude protein and lower values in contents of crude fiber such as Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF), cellulose and lignin. There was no relationship between variation of In Vitro Dry matter Digestibility (IVDMD) and sowing time. The plants sown at Mar. 15 and Mar. 25 showed highest digestible dry matter yields.

Molecular markers are useful tools for evaluating genetic diversity and determining cultivar identity. Present study was conducted to evaluate the genetic diversity within a diverse collection of rice accessions used for Korean breeding programs. Two hundred eighty-seven rice cultivars, composed of temperate japonica, tropical japonica, indica, and Tongil-type of Korean crossing parents were evaluated by means of 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. A total of 99 alleles were detected, and the number of alleles per marker ranged from 4 to 11, with an average of 6.6 per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) for each of the SSR markers ranged from 0.2924 to 0.8102 with an average of 0.5785. These results, with the result that use of only 15 SSR markers made all rice cultivars examined could be uniquely distinguished, imply the efficiency of SSR markers for analysis of genetic diversity in rice. Cluster analysis was performed on similar coefficient matrics calculated from SSR markers to generate a dendogram in which two major groups corresponding to japonica (Group I) and indica and Tongil type rice (group II) with additional subclasses within both major groups. The narrowness of the Korean breeding germplasm was revealed by the fact that most of the Korean-bred and Japan-bred temperate japonica cultivars were concentrated into only 2 of the sub-group I-1 (143 cultivars) and I-2 (58 cultivars) among six sub-groups in major group of japonica. This is because of the japonica accessions used in this study was a very closely related ones because of frequent sharing of the crossing parents with similar genetic background with synergy effect of the inherited genetic difference between indica and japonica. A rice breeding strategy with the use of molecular markers was discussed for overcoming of genetic vulnerability owing to this genetic narrowness.

In this study, as preliminary research for the development of natural estrogen supplement the chemical properties of Iranian black pomegranate juice concentrate and seeds were evaluated. Proximate compositions of pomegranate juice concentrate and seeds were as follows; crude lipid 0.4% and 8.2%, moisture 39.9% and 6.6%, crude protein 0.9% and 12.2%, ash 1.4% and 1.7%, and carbohydrate 42.0% and 84.5% respectively. Major amino acids are glutamic acid (1310.0ppm) and aspartic acid (896.2ppm) in juice concentrate, and glycine (611.1ppm) and arginin (401.6ppm) in seeds. Ascorbic acid has the highest concentration of 20.0mg/l00g in juice concentrate and 0.23mg/l00 in seeds. The compositions of unsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid and linolenic acid were higher than those of saturated fatty acids such as stearic palmitic acid. Major minerals were potassium, calcium and sodium, potassium was highest in both juice concentrate and seeds. Vitamins were composed of ascorbic acid (20.0mg/l00g), vitamin B1(0.12mg/100g) and niacin (0.80mg/l00g) in juice concentrate, and only ascorbic acid(0.23mg/l00g) in seeds. Organic acids such as citric and L-malic acid were detected only in pomegranate juice concentrate. The contents of total polyphenols were 4.55g/L in juice concentrate and 3.5mg/l00g in seeds, respectively. Phytoestrogens detected in pomegranate juice concentrate and seeds were daidzein, quercetin, genistein and 17 β-estradiol.

The medicinal plants in 22 unhabited islands of Jindo-gun, Chonnam provincde were investigated from March 2000 to October 2002. The medicinal plants in 22 uninhabited islands of Jindo-gun were consisted 366 taxa; 95 families, 269 genus, 309 species, 52 varieties, 3 forma, and 2 subspecies. Important medicinal plants on survey area were Lemmaphyllum microphyllum, Dendropanax morbifera, Ficus erecta, Farfugium japonicum, Machilus thunbergii, Juniperus chinensis var. procumbens, Dendrobium moniliforme, Pyrrhosia tricuspis, Cinnamomum japonicum, Pittosporum tobira, Kadsura japonica, and Daphniphyllum macropodum, This result can be used as basic information data for medicinal research and the conservation of uninhabited islands.

To develop optimal storage method of root of Anemarrhena Rhizome, which has been grown as major cultural herbal medicine material, root of Anemarrhena Rhizome was stored for 10 months with different packing materials and sealing methods. The loss in dry weight as influenced by packing materials and sealing methods was the lowest at vacuum packing and followed by complete sealing methods with transparent polyethylene film. The rot ratio of root during the storage period was not significantly different among packing materials but was significantly different among sealing conditions. Conclusively vacuum packing and complete sealing with polyethylene film appears to be optimal for storage of Anemarrhena Rhizome.

This study was performed to investigate the flora and plant resources of Mt. Woosanbong (537.8 m) from April to October 2002. The collected vascular plants were composed of all 389 taxa including cultivated species, and classified into 329 species, 2 subspecies, 53 varieties, and 5 forms of 248 genera under 81 families. Six taxa of the Korean endemic plants and 4 taxa of the rare and endangered plants were also distributed in this mount. Resource plants were categorized into edible 181, pasturing 160, medicinal 136, stainable 94, ornamental 77, timber 22, fiber 5 and industrial 4 taxa, respectively. Floristic geography of the investigated area was regarded as the boundary between middle and southern parts in floristic pattern of the Korean Peninsula.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between yearly variations of meteorological elements and yearly variations of productivity in hot pepper. In addition, correlation coefficients among the yields and yield components were used to find out the relationships between meteorological elements and productivity. Yearly variation of the mean air temperature in May and July showed large with coefficients of variation(C.V.) of 25.0,8.9%, respectively, but the variation of the duration of sunshine in May were relative small. Yield and plant height was greatly with C.V. of 7.14,11.6%, respectively, diameter of fruit showed more or less C.V. of 2.28% and length of fruit showed less variation. Correlation coefficients between maximum temperature in period of cultivation from May and yield are positively significant at the level of 1 %. Correlation Coefficients between precipitation in period of cultivation from May to August and yield are negative significant at the level of 5 and 1 %, respectively. Correlation coefficients amount the plant height, length of fruit, diameter of fruit per plant, and seed yield were positively significant at the level of 1 %, respectively.

Higenamine [1-(4-hydroxy-6, 7-dihydroxy-l, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydroisoquinoline) is a cardiotonic constituent of Aconiti tuber, one of the most widely prescribed oriental medicines. S-(-)higenamine was reported to have a stronger cardiotonic activity than R-(+)-higenamine and known as a central intermediate in the biosynthesis of various benzyl isoquionoline alkaloids in plants. The separation of higenamine enantiomers has been accomplished with capillary electrophoresis using cyclodextrins (CDs) as chiral selectors. Good resolution of this enantiomers was obtained using a 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer containing hydroxypropyl β-CDs using 27 cm fused silica capillary (50μm i.d., 20 cm to detector) at 25 ℃. With the electric field of 340 V/cm, the separation time of higenamine enantiomers was less than 6 min. Under this optimum conditions, the relative standard deviations of migration time and peak area were less than 1.6% and 3.2%. A 512-channel diode array detector was confirmed for the higenamine. The detection limits (S/N = 3) of these enantiomers are 1.5mutextrmm/mL. We confirmed the chiral form of higenamine in medicinal plants.