Oxidative stress is one of common cause of fatty changes in the liver. Antioxidant capacity was confirmed in various vegetables including black radish (Raphanus sativus L. var niger). Fermentation of vegetables using Lactobacillus plantarum has been known to generate bioactive components. This study was conducted to determine if fermented black radish (FBR) ameliorates oxidative liver injury induced by CCl4 in rats. To accomplish this, FBR (250 and 500 mg/ kg) was orally administered to rats for 7 consecutive days, single CCl4 (1.5 mL/kg) treatment or no treatment orally. Serum chemistry at 24 hours after CCl4 injury showed that FBR (500 mg/kg) significantly reduced the level of both alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in CCl4 exposed rats. Moreover, FBR treatment significantly increased radical-scavenging effects in livers with the reduction of lipid peroxidation in CCl4 exposed rats. Histopathologic findings including Kupffer cell activation in the liver of each group matched those of serum chemistry. Collectively, black radish, through fermentation, exerts hepatoprotective capacity in CCl4 induced liver injury in rats through anti-oxidation.

In present study, we investigated the antidiabetic effect of Momordica charantia(as well known “bitter melon”). This study was conducted to determine antidiabetic mechanism of Bitter Melon Extract (BME). We measured blood glucose, insulin, glucagon level in a Sprague-Dawley rat model of high-fat diet/streptozotocin(HFD/STZ)-induced diabetes. Five experimental groups were used: normal, HFD/STZ, BME 62.5 mg/kg HFD/STZ, BME 125 mg/kg HFD/STZ and BME 250 mg/kg HFD/STZ. BME was orally administered to the rats every other day for 9 weeks. Results showed that fasting blood glucose levels were significantly lower in the BME 125 mg/kg(150.17 ± 20.22 mg/dL) and 250 mg/kg(124.17 ± 22.17 mg/dL) groups than in the vehicle group(188.83 ± 26.63 mg/dL)(p<0.05). In addition, glucagon levels were lower in the three BME treatment groups than in the vehicle group(p<0.05). Oral glucose tolerance tests revealed that the BME 250 mg/kg group had significantly(p<0.05) reduced 120-minute blood glucose levels and areas under the curve. Our results suggest that BME induces antidiabetic effects via the reduction of glucagon and blood glucose levels.

Present study aimed to determine the effect of ‘bitter melon’, a popularly used fruit in Bangladesh and several other Asian countries, on high-fat-diet-induced type 2 diabetes. To investigate the effect, ethanol extract from bitter melon (BME) as a dietary supplement with mouse chow was used. BME was found to significantly attenuate the high-fat diet (HFD) -induced body weight and total fat mass. BME also effectively reduced the insulin resistance induced by the HFD. Furthermore, dietary supplementation of BME was highly effective in increasing insulin sensitivity and reducing hepatic fat and obesity. These results indicate that BME could be effective in attenuating type 2 diabetes and could therefore be a preventive measure against type 2 diabetes.

Background : Korean mountain ginseng(Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) are difficult to clinically apply because of its scarcity and high cost. Advances in plant biotechnology have made it possible to produce mountain ginseng extracts on a large scale using adventitious root cultures in bio-reactors. This study investigated the variations of ginsenoside compounds composition and biological activities of wild ginseng adventitious roots by fermentation process. Methods and Results : Wild ginseng adventitious roots with five days fermentation using four strain of bacteria(Leuconostoc mesenteroides(KACC 15744), Bacillus circulans(KACC 15822), Bacillus licheniformis(KACC 15823), Bacillus subtilis subsp. inaquosorum(KACC 17047)). Ginsenoside contents was analysed by using HPLC. To examine the antioxidant activity associated with biological functions, radical scavenging analyses DPPH, ABTS and SOD-like activity analyses were conducted. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents were evaluated to determine the antioxidant activity increment. The result showed increased total ginsenoside contents by fermentation process. In particular, B. licheniformis showed the highest ginsenoside contents. Regarding ginseng fermented with B. licheniformis, values of 70.6 ± 1.4%, 44.3 ± 1.7%, and 88.4 ± 1.3% were measured using DPPH, ABTS, and SOD-like antioxdiant activity analyses, respectively. The total phenolic contents in ginseng fermented with B. licheniformis was 184.5 ± 0.9 ㎍·GAE/㎖, and the total flavonoid contents was 108.5 ± 1.8 ㎍·QE/㎖ in ginseng fermented with L. mesenteroides. Conclusion : The high activity of β-glucosidase was selected bacteria. The four types of lactic acid bacteria examined, the use of B. licheniformis to ferment ginseng resulted in greatest increase in biological activities and ginsenoside contents.

Ecotoxicity assessments with the physiochemical water quality items and the bioassay test using Daphnia magna were conducted for 18 selected effluents of 6 industrial types (metal processing, petroleum refining, synthetic textile manufacturing, plating, alcohol beverage manufacturing, inorganic compound manufacturing) being detected toxicity from industrial effluent in Ulsan city, and the interrelationship between total toxic unit (ΣTU) and concentrations of Water Quality Conservation Act in Korea were investigated. The average toxic unit(TU) of effluents for 6 industrial types displayed the following ascending order: petroleum refining (0.2) < synthetic textile manufacturing (0.6) < alcohol beverage manufacturing (0.9) < metal processing (1.3) ≤ inorganic compound manufacturing (1.3) < plating (3.0). These values were less than effluent permission standard. Based on the result of substances causing ecotoxicity, the correlation analysis was not easy because most of heavy metals were not detected or were less than effluent permission standard. Toxicological assessment of industrial effluent was suitable for the evaluation of the mixture toxicity for pollutant. The whole effluent toxicity test using a variety of species was needed for the evaluation of industrial wastewater.

The behavior of copper throughout the whole process of wastewater treatment plant that uses the activated sludge process to treat the wastewater of petrochemical industry that contains low concentration of copper was investigated. Total inflow rate of wastewater that flows into the aeration tank was 697 m3/day with 0.369 mg/L of copper concentration, that is, total copper influx was 257.2 g/day. The ranges of copper concentrations of the influent to the aeration tank and effluent from the one were 0.315 ~ 0.398 mg/L and 0.159 ~ 0.192 mg/L, respectively. The average removal rate of copper in the aeration tank was 50.8 %. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) of copper by microbes in the aeration tank was 3,320. The accumulated removal rate of copper throughout the activated sludge process was 71.3%, showing a high removal ratio by physical and chemical reactions in addition to biosorption by microbes. The concentration of copper in the solid dehydrated by filter press ranged from 74.8 mg/kg to 77.2 mg/kg and the concentration of copper by elution test of waste was 2.690 ~ 2.920 mg/L. It was judged that the copper concentration in dehydrated solid by bioconcentration could be managed with the control of that in the influent.

Several adsorbents were tried to remove the selenium ions from industrial wastewater and the following ascending order of the adsorption performance for the selenium at pH 9 was observed: cation exchange resin < chelate resin < zeolite < brown marine algae < granular activated carbon < anion exchange resin. Initial concentration of selenium(146 mg/L) in industrial wastewater was reduced to 63 mg/L of selenium at pH 9 by neutralization process. The maximum uptake of Se calculated from the Langmuir isotherm with anion exchange resin was 0.091 mmol/g at pH 10 and that with granular activated carbon was 0.083 mmol/g at pH 6. The affinity coefficients of Se ion towards anion exchange resin and granular activated carbon were 3.263 L/mmol at pH 10 and 0.873 L/mmol at pH 6, respectively. The sorption performance of anion exchange resin at the low concentration of Se, namely, was much better than that of granular activated carbon. The Se ions from industrial wastewater throughout neutralization process and two steps of adsorption using anion exchange resin was removed to 97.7%.

Advanced oxidation processes involving O3/H2O2 and O3/catalyst were used to compare the degradability and the effect of pH on the oxidation of 1,4-dioxane. Oxidation processes were carried out in a bubble column reactor under different pH. Initial hydrogen peroxide concentration was 3.52 mM in O3/H2O2 process and 115 g/L (0.65 wt.%) of activated carbon impregnated with palladium was packed in O3/catalyst column. 1,4-dioxane concentration was reduced steadily with reaction time in O3/H2O2 oxidation process, however, in case of O3/catalyst process, about 50～75% of 1,4-dioxane was degraded only in 5 minutes after reaction. Overall reaction efficiency of O3/catalyst was also higher than that of O3/H2O2 process. TOC and CODCr were analyzed in order to examine the oxidation characteristics with O3/H2O2 and O3/catalyst process. The results of CODCr removal efficiency and ΔTOC/ΔThOC ratio in O3/catalyst process gave that this process could more proceed the oxidation reaction than O3/H2O2 oxidation process. Therefore, it was considered that O3/catalyst advanced oxidation process could be used as a effective oxidation process for removing non-degradable toxic organic materials.

The purpose of this study was to develop the preliminary source fingerprints of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The source categories studied were vehicles, gasoline vapor, gasoline storage tank, coating, dry cleaning and road covering. The source samples were collected using 6L electro-polished stainless steel canisters for about 20 seconds. From this study, the main component emitted from VOC sources in Korea was toluene. The toluene proportion for road covering, vehicles, coating and gasoline vapor were 35, 18, 16 and 5%, respectively. The C2-C5 alkane and alkene compounds were mainly emitted from vehicles, gasoline vapor and gasoline storage tank. The main compounds of coating were m/p-xylene(34%), toluene(16%), 1,2,4-TMB(10%) and o-xylene(9%), which are aromatic hydrocarbons. In the case of dry cleaning, nonane(41%), 1,2,4-TMB (22%) and 1,3,5-TMB(13%) were mainly emitted.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of removal efficiency for aromatic hydrocarbons using a high-temperature fiber filter on a laboratory scale. The main elemental compositions of a high-temperature fiber filter are aluminium and silica, which can act as the catalysts. Benzene, toluene and o-xylene among aromatic hydrocarbons were used in this experiment. For 3㎝ thickness of fiber filter, these compounds were removed more than 90% at the face velocities of 3㎝/sec and 5㎝/sec above 450℃. For 4㎝ thickness of it, the removal efficiencies of these compounds were almost 90% from 400℃ at the same face velocities, suggesting that it may be due to increasing the contact time between the fiber filter and aromatic hydrocarbons. The pressure drop ranged from 22 to 48㎜H2O for 3㎝ thickness of fiber filter. However, for 4㎝ thickness of it, it was about two times(41-89㎜H2O) higher than that for 3㎝ fiber thickness.

The biosorption and desorption of Cd were carried out using brown marine algae, known as the good biosorbent of heavy metals. The content of alginate bound to light metals could be changed by the physical and the chemical pretreatment of Sargassum fluitans biomass. The Cd uptake was independent of the alginate content. In case of protonated biomass, Cd uptake was the lowest because the alginic acid of biomass was dissolved to cadmium solution during the biosorption. The maximum Cd uptake of Sargassum biomass was ranged from 79㎎/g to 139㎎/g. In case of raw biomass, the higher the alginate content of biomass, the higher was the Cd uptake. 100% of Cd and light metals sorbed in the biomass were eluted at 0.1N HCl(pH 1.1). However, the elution efficiency in CaCl2 and Ca(NO3)2 solution was varied by the concentration, the solid to liquid ratio and the pH of calcium solution. The distribution coefficient between Cd and protons in the desorption solution at pH ranged from 1.6 to 2.9 was observed on the constant stoichometric coefficient(1.3).

To collect and evaluate an aerosol acidity (H^+) in ambient air, the cyclone/annular denuder/filter pack sampling system (ADS) was used. Aerosol acidity was collected in Chicago using the ADS for 81 12-hr samples divided in spring/summer/fall 1990 and winter 1991. This study illustrated that the ADS was suitable for measuring aerosol acidity. The 10^-5N HClO_4 extraction solution for pH determination provided more reliable scale than 10^-4N HClO_4. NH_3 should be removed prior to particle collection to accurately measure H^+ concentration on the filter. There was seasonal variation in aerosol acidity concentrations. Aerosols were more acidic in the summer. High correlations between SO_4^2- and NH_4^+, and between SO_4^2+ and H^+ were observed during the entire sampling period.