A seismic performance assessment based on risk assessment is proposed considering risk factors and scenario, and thus the technique provides more practical and reasonable seismic performance assessment and reinforcement for the existing buildings more than ever before.

The six polysaccharide fractions were prepared by chromatographic procedure from the hot water extractsof the aboveground parts of Astragalus membranaceus. These six polysaccharides from aboveground parts of Astragalusmembranaceus Bunge were tested for gut-mucosal immune activity and acute toxicity. In a view of molecular weight, the sixfractions were estimated to be 75000, 88000, 129000 and 345000 Da, respectively. Component sugar analysis indicated thatthese fractions were mainly consisted of galactose (46.3~11.8%) and arabinose (35.4~9.9%) in addition to glucose,rhamnose, fucose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid. Among the six major purifiedpolysaccharides, AMA-1-b-PS2 showed highest bone merrow cell proliferation and lymphocyte of Peyer's patch stimulatingactivity. It may be concluded that intestinal immune system modulating activity of aboveground parts from Astragalusmembranaceus Bunge is caused by polysaccharides having a polygalacturonan moiety with neutral sugars such as arabinoseand galactose. In single oral dose toxicity study, no differences were observed between control and treated groups in clinicalsigns. The results indicated that lethal dose 50 (LD50) of water extracts from Astragalus membranaceus-aboveground partswas found to be higher than 5000㎎/㎏/day in this experiment. From the above results, we may suggest that Astragalusmembranaceus-aboveground parts might have useful as a safe material for functional food and pharmaceutics.

This study was performed to determine the antimelanogenic effect and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of anthocyanin rich fraction (AN-SLP) from Liriope platyphylla Wang et Tang seeds. Anthocyanins isolated from L. platyphylla seeds revealed the presence of four major anthocyanin components, which were tentatively identified as delphinidin-3-Oglucoside, delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside, petunidin-3-O-rutinoside, and malvidin-3-O-rutinoside using semipreparative HPLC, 1H-NMR, 13C NMR, FAB-MS and LC/ES-MS. The inhibitory effect of AN-SLP on tyrosinase activity was studied using in vitro (against mushroom tyrosinase) and ex vivo (against B16 melanoma cell tyrosinase) models. Cellular tyrosinase activity was decreased by AN-SLP treatment in B 16 melanoma cells through dose dependent manner, but AN-SLP did not inhibit mushroom tyrosinase and L-DOPA oxidation directly. AN-SLP showed melanin inhibition by 53.2% at 50 μg/ml which was 0.7 times more efficient than the antimelanogenic effect of commercial arbutin and kojic acid (36.5%) also did not show cell toxicity. Additionally, AN-SLP inhibited the activity of α-glucosidase and the glycosylation of tyrosinase in melanoma cell. The resulting unsaturated glycosylation of tyrosinase makes it unstable and disturb correct transportation. From theses results, we conclude that AN-SLP could be used as anti-melanogenic agent for skin whitening.

This study was conducted to determine the contents of phenolic compounds and astragalosides in Astragalus membranaceus. Between the phenolic compound groups, flavonoids compounds (51.13%) had higher average concentrations than the phenolic acids groups. Among the 30 phenolic compounds, quercetin (353.11μg g-1) provided the highest concentrations. According to different cultivation year, 3-year-cultivated Astragalus (2612.57μg g-1) showed the highest concentrations of phenolic compounds. According to different harvest days, 6/5 harvesting Astragalus (2615.80μg g-1) showed the highest concentrations of phenolic acids. Comparison between the top and subterranean parts of harvested Astragalus plants cultivated for 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years showed big difference of total phenolic compounds in concentrations. Further, the top part had higher amounts of the total phenolic compounds than the subterranean part among all Astragalus. This tendency was similar to those of the top root and lateral root. The concentration of the phenolic compounds in the top root was higher than that of the lateral root.

This study was conducted to determine the contents of astragalosides in Astragalus membranaceus. The total astragaloside content (1701μg g-1) of 2 year-cultivated astragalus was the highest among the variously cultivated astragalus plants. Upon an increase in cultivation time, the average value of the total astragaloside content decreased (from 1650μg g-1 to 645μg g-1). Especially, the content of astragaloside decreased rapidly. Comparison between the top and subterranean parts of harvested astragalus plants showed that as the cultivation time increased, the astragaloside content of the top part decreased. On the other hand, the subterranean part demonstrated the opposite pattern. The astragaloside content of the top root increased compared to that in the lateral root (from 1.9μg g-1 to 33.4μg g-1). Further, the content of astragaloside increased in the top root as the cultivation time increased.