Freshly harvested seed of Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus L.; CMV) was strongly dormant because of hardseedness. Seeds of freshly harvested germinated only 8% while clipping the seed coat completely overcome the innate dormancy, which indicates inhibition of germination of the seed is mainly due to seed coat (87%). The dormant (intact) hard seeds did not imbibe water whereas the non-dormant (clipped) seeds took up rapidly. In natural environment condition, the hard seed coat dormancy was broken only after 5 months after seed harvest. To break such a strong seed coat dormancy, the chemical and heat treatments were effective. Concentrated sulfuric acid was more effective than dry heat and hot water treatments. Hot water treatment improved germination but the germination percentage was less than 41%. Treatments increased germination due to its effect on the seed coat integrity. A scanning electron microscope reveled that disruption of seed coat layers and subsequent development of numerous crack in the hilum region of the seed and on the seed coat surface of concentrated sulfuric acid treatment and formation of cracks in the dry heat treatments, respectively, were observed in the seed coat surface, which served as water entry points.

Effects of Gal geun (Puerariae Radix) EtOH ext. on lipid lowering and antioxidant were investigated in hyperlipidemic rat. Concentration of FFA and triglyceride in plasma showed a tendency to decrease in Gal geun ext. groups. Concentration of plasma total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol decreased in Gal geun ext. groups. However the concentration of HDL-cholesterol showed no significantly different in all treatment groups. Concentration of liver total cholesterol and triglyceride showed a tendence to decrease in Gal geun ext. groups. Concentration of plasma and liver TBARS showed a low values in Gal geun ext. groups. The values of GSH-Px and SOD activity showed no significantly different among all the treatment groups. However the values of SOD and CAT activity showed a high value in the Gal geun ext. groups.

We have discussed here the phenotypic and genetic characteristics as well as proteomic analysis of lesion mimic mutants (LLM) in rice. LLM is one of the mutants that induces cell death without infection of pathogen and produces defense signaling pathways. As the phenotypic expression, most LLMs induce spots on the leaf blades and leaf sheaths at their various developmental stages. We have discussed the nature of bl1, bl2, spl1, spl3, spl4, spl5 and spl6 LLMs in rice which were formed developmentally controlled spot on the leaf blades that were appeared as tiny dotted spots during tillering stage and gradually increased up to maturity. Through Northern blot analysis lower levels of rubisco large subunit and rubisco small subunit were observed in spotted leaves (sp) compared to non-spotted leaves (nsp). However, catalase was severely degraded in the sp. Broken thylakoid membranes of mesophyll chloroplasts were seen in nsp sections and were absent in sp sections of the mutant. Through 2-DE analysis 159 protein spots were differentially expressed between wild type and mutant from identified 800 reproducibleproteins, where 114 spots were up-regulated and 45 were down-regulated. Among quantified 25 protein spots, except two, all of the protein spots including protein disulfide isomerase, transketolase, thioredoxin peroxidase, ATP synthase, and rubisco large and small subunits were identified in the wild type but were absent in the mutant. However, catalase was up-regulated in the mutant. Genetic analysis indicated that studied bl1, bl2 and spl6 mutants are controlled by a single recessive gene.

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was used to classify normal and artificially aged nonviable corn (Zea mays L., cv. 'Suwon19') seeds. The spectra at 1100-2500nm were scanned with normal and artificially aged single seeds and analyzed by principle component analysis (PCA). To discriminate normal seeds from artificially aged seeds, a calibration modeling set was developed with a discriminant partial least square 2 (PLS 2) method. The calibration model derived from PLS 2 resulted in 100% classification accuracy of normal and artificially aged (aged) seeds from the raw, the 1st and 2nd derivative spectra. The prediction accuracy of the unknown normal seeds was 88, 100 and 97% from the raw, the 1st and 2nd derivative spectra, and that of the unknown aged seeds was 100% from all the raw, the 1st and 2nd derivative spectra, respectively. The results showed a possibility to separate corn seeds into viable and non-viable using NIR spectroscopy.