Background: To investigate the possibility of using Asarum sieboldii as an environment-friendly fumigant for protecting organic cultural heritages, the inhibitory effect of A. sieboldii extract against wood rot fungi on Hanji was examined. Methods and Results: The physical, optical, and morphological properties of Hanji inoculated with Trametes versicolor and Tyromyces palustris, and exposed to the n-hexane fraction of A. sieboldii extract, were measured. The physical properties were expressed as weight loss, zero-span tensile strength and viscosity and the optical properties were depicted by luminance and chromaticity (L*, a*, and b*). The results showed that, the n-hexane fraction of A. sieboldii extract inhibited the growth of fungi on Hanji, and preserved its condition. At a concentration of 25 ㎎, the n-hexane fraction of A. sieboldii extract maintained zero-span tensile strength, increased viscosity, and restricted discoloration of Hanji. It also was confirmed that the weight of fungi infested Hanji exposed to the extract did not decrease. Scanning electron microscopic images revealed that the spores and hyphae of T. versicolor and T. palustris were not present on Hanji during treatment with > 25 ㎎ of the n-hexane fraction of A. sieboldii extract. Conclusions: These results indicate that the n-hexane fraction of A. sieboldii extract by virtue of its antifungal effectiveness may help in preserving Korean paper cultural heritages, including Hanji.

Background: Salvia has been widely cultivated for use in flavoring and folk medicines in many countries, including Korea and China. In this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory activity and the underlying active compounds of Salvia extract and its fractions.Methods and Results: The anti-inflammatory activity was measured by assessing the inhibition of cysteinyl leukotriene production in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 mast cells. Salvia plebeia R. Br. was found to have the most potent inhibitory activity on leukotriene production than S. japonica and S. chanroenica had. Fifty percent ethanol extracts of S. plebeia R. Br. were successively partitioned with n-hexane, methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, 1-butanol and water. The ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fraction showed stronger anti-inflammatory activity than other solvent fractions did. The EtOAc fraction was subjected to silica gel column chromatography elution with a chloroform and methanol gradient system (100 : 1 → 1 : 1) yielding 10 fractions. Three kinds of fractions (chloroform:methanol = 20 : 1, 10 : 1 and 5 : 1) showed high inhibitory activity on leukotriene production. We confirmed the major compounds with anti-inflammatory activity from S. plebeia R. Br.Conclusions: In this study, the major components of S. plebeia that showed leukotriene production inhibitory activity were isolated using solvent extraction and silica gel column chromatography. Rosmarinic acid, hispidulin and luteolin were identified as the major compounds with anti-inflammatory effect.

Background: This study represents the first report that the anti-obesity activity of ethanol extracts of Aronia melanocarpa can be enhanced through ultrasonification at a frequency of 120 ㎑ at 60℃ (UE). Methods and Results: The amounts of cyanidin-3-O-galactose (cya-gal), a major anthocyanin in A. melanocarpa were higher by up to 402.4 ㎎/100 g, as compared with 221.4 ㎎/100 g and 322.1 ㎎/100 g, for hot water at 100℃ and 70% ethanol at 80℃ respectively. This result should cause the higher antioxidant activities of the UE than extract of hot water and ethanol in DPPH free radical scavenging. It was confirmed that the high antioxidant activity of UE could play an important role in inhibiting the production of proteins related to adipocyte differentiation, such as peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) and sterol regulatory element binding protein 1 (SREBP1). Conclusions: Ultrasonification at a frequency of 120 ㎑ at 60℃ should result in better anti-obesity activity than that observed using other processes. It was also observed for the first time that the anti-obesity activity of A. melanocarpa was associated with its antioxidant activity, possibly due to the higher elution of intact cya-gal, owing to efficient low temperature ultrasonification extraction. These results could also be applied to improve other biological activities of medicinal herbs that contain many types of heat-labile bioactive substances.

This study was conducted to develop a fast and efficient screening method to determine the quantity of fatty acid in peanut oil for high oleate breeding program. A total of 329 peanut samples were used in this study, 227 of which were considered in the calibration equation development and 102 were utilized for validation, using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS). The NIRS equations for all the seven fatty acids had low standard error of calibration (SEC) values, while high R2 values of 0.983 and 0.991 were obtained for oleic and linoleic acids, respectively in the calibration equation. Furthermore, the predicted means of the two main fatty acids in the calibration equation were very similar to the means based on gas chromatography (GC) analysis, ranging from 36.7 to 77.1% for oleic acid and 7.1 to 42.7% for linoleic acid. Based on the standard error of prediction (SEP), bias values, and R 2 statistics, the NIRS fatty acid equations were accurately predicted the concentrations of oleic and linoleic acids of the validation sample set. These results suggest that NIRS equations of oleic and linoleic acid can be used as a rapid mass screening method for fatty acid content analysis in peanut breeding program.

Acanthopanax species is known commonly as Siberian ginseng, touch-me-not, devil’s shrub, prickly eleutherococc, eleutherococc and wild pepper. A diverse group of chemical compounds isolated from Acanthopanax species was named ‘eleutherosides’. Among eleutherosides, eleutherosides B and E were widely known in Acanthopanax species. Acanthopanax species are cultivated and grow wild in a various area of Korea and have a variety of pharmacological effects. But, there are a lot of difficulties on producing excellent Acanthopanax species, according to the cultivated method is different pharmacological ingredients. This study, therefore, analyzed eleutherosides B and E in A. divaricatus and A. koreanum by different fertilizer ratio using HPLC. We will be investigated a high content of eleutherosides B and E by different fertilizer ratio and suggest an efficient fertilizer ratio of A. divaticatus and A. koreanum. All samples of A. divaricatus and A. koreanum were collected at Yeongcheon Agricultural Technology & Extension Center, Yeongcheon, Korea. The sample was prepared by upper and lower parts. The fertilizer ratio are N-P-K(10.5-8.5-8.5: 50 kg/10a), 2N-P-K (21-8.5-8.5: 50 kg/10a), N-2P-K (10.5-17-8.5: 50 kg/10a), N-P-2K (10.5-8.5-17: 50 kg/10a), and 2N-2P-2K (21-17-17: 50 kg/10a), respectively. To analyze eleutherosides B and E, 5 g of A. divaricatus and A. koreanum was extracted with 50% MeOH (3 × 100 ml) by reflux and evaporated in vacuo. The residue was dissolved in 1 ml of MeOH. The resulting solution was used for HPLC analysis. HPLC separation of eleutherosides B and E for qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed using a reverse phase system. A Discovery®C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm) column was used with a mobile phase that consisted of water and acetonitrile. A gradient solvent system of water and acetonitrile (90:10 to 70:30 for 20 min) was used for the elution program. UV detection was conducted at 350 nm. The injection volume was 10 μl and the flow rate was 1 ml/min. All injections were performed in triplicate. The different fertilizer ratio yielded total eleutherosides B and E contents of 4.417-6.905 and 3.652-7.227 mg/g in the upper and lower parts of A. divaricatus, respectively. In A. koreanum, the total eleutherosides B and E contents were 4.591-10.108 and 3.834-9.079 mg/g in the upper and lower parts, respectively. The best conditions to increase eleutherosides B and E content in A. divaricatus was determined to be with N-2P-K fertilizer ratio, on the other hand, in A. koreanum was 2N-2P-2K fertilizer ratio.