The antioxidant enzyme and DPPH radical scavenging activity with variations in drying methods of diploid and tetraploid in Platycodon grandiflorum were determined. Antioxidant enzyme activities were measured as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). The roots of Platycodon grandiflorum were freeze-dried, indoor-dried, hot-air dried, and microwave dried. The root extract of P. grandiflorum have shown the highest SOD enzyme activity of 92% in tetraploid of freeze-dried and indoor-dried while diploid of microwave dried showed the lowest SOD enzyme activity of 47.5%. The activity of CAT showed higher values in the root of tetraploid than in the diploid of P. grandiflorum in all drying methods. The APX activity showed relatively higher values in the root extract of freeze-dried both the diploid and tetraploid, but the difference in comparison with other extracts was not significant. The POX activities according to drying methods of diploid and tetraploid in P. grandiflorum showed relatively high values in freeze-dried and indoor-dried compared with other drying methods, and the POX activity between the diploid and tetraploid was not significant difference in each drying method. The DPPH radical scavenging activity with variation in drying methods of diploid and tetraploid in P. grandiflorum was the highest in the freeze-dried, and was higher in tetraploid than diploid in all the concentrations. In conclusion, the root of P. grandiflorum had the potent biological activities in both diploid and tetraploid. In particular, the tetraploid root of P. grandiflorum showing high antioxidant enzyme activity could be good materials for development of source of functional healthy food.

The objective of this study was determined to evaluate α-amylase, α-glucosidase, pancreatic lipase inhibition in vitro and DPPH radical scavenging activity of the several Korean resources plants. The α-amylase inhibitory activity of Salicornia herbacea, Erythronium japonicum (flower) and Phragmites communis (root) in water extract showed relatively high 62.8%, 66.5% and 69.3%, respectively. The α-amylase inhibitory activity of Citrus junos (pericarp) and Cornus officinalis in methanol extract was found to have an effect with 32.8% in Citrus junos (pericarp) and 60.9% in Cornus officinalis. Corylopsis coreana in both water and methanol extract had the highest α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 81.7% and 89.5%, while the extract of Portulaca oleracea, Ficus carica and Citrus junos was not measured α-glucosidase inhibitory activity at given experiment concentration. Depending on the extraction solvent and the plant species, it was observed that there was a significant difference in α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The pancreatic lipase inhibitory activity showed relatively higher in the methanol extract than water extract except pericarp of Citrus junos. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of selected plants was much difference between measured plant species, and showed that the increase was proportional to the concentration. These results suggested that selected plants had the potent biological activity on carbohydrate, lipid Inhibitory activity and antioxidant activity, therefore these plant resources could be a good materials to develop medicinal preparations, nutraceuticals or health functional foods for diabetes or obesity.

The antioxidant potential and enzyme activities in Salicornia herbacea, Corylopsis coreana, Erythronium japonicum, Phragmites communis, Momordica Charantia, Nelumbo nucifera, Salvia plebeia, Portulaca oleracea, Ficus carica, Citrus junos and Cornus officinalis were determined. Their antioxidant activities were measured using DPPH radical scavenging and nitrite scavenging activity. Enzyme activities in investigated plants were evaluated as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). The DPPH scavenging rate from 100 to 2500 mgL-1 was the highest in the flower of Corylopsis coreana. However, it was not detected in most of the samples at concentration below 100 mgL-1. The nitrite scavenging activity according to each kind of resource plants was significantly higher in the stem of Corylopsis coreana and leaf of Nelumbo nucifera. The root extract of Erythronium japonicum had the highest SOD enzyme activity of 94.0% while leaf of Salvia plebeia showed the lowest SOD enzyme activity of 30.4%. The activity of CAT and APX showed higher values in the stem of Corylopsis coreana, root of Erythronium japonicum and root of Phragmites communis in comparison with other plants. The activity of POD showed significantly high values in stem of Corylopsis coreana, Momordica Charantia and pericarp of Citrus junos extracts. The antioxidant enzyme activities differ significantly in different plants. In conclusion, we showed that Corylopsis coreana, Erythronium japonicum Cornus officinalis, and Momordica Charantia had the potent biological activities. Therefore, these plant resources showing antioxidant activity could be good materials for development of source of functional healthy food.

The aim of this study was to determine total phenolics (TP) content, total flavonoids (TF) level, and antioxidant activity of methanol extracts from leaf parts of 15 Vietnamese wild plants. TP content showed the highest amount in methanol extracts from Altenanthera sessilis (409.7±1.4 ppm), and followed by Eclipta prostrata (183.6±3.8 ppm) and Cassia tora (159.3±5.7 ppm). The highest TF level also was found in A. sessilis (156.3±1.7 ppm), followed by E. prostrata, and C. tora, showing similar tendency to TP. Methanol extracts of A. sessilis, E. prostrate and C. tora at 1000 ppm exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity by 94.5, 92.6 and 92.7%, respectively. The methanol extracts from A. sessilis showed the highest ABTS and nitrite scavenging activities by 97% and 92%, respectively. The highest correlation coefficient (r2) was 0.9522 between TP and TF, and followed by 0.8919 between DPPH and ABTS activities. However, polyphenols and antioxidant activities showed low correlation coefficients, ranging from r2=0.4114 to 0.4826. It was concluded that Vietnamese wild plants contain polyphenol compounds with antioxidant activities depending on plant species.

The recent disaster of earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 severely attacked East Japanese cities and people, and in addition, the accident of nuclear power station will inevitably damage the agricultural activities there. The economical depression influences on the horticulture and floriculture industry as well, through the reluctant consumption all over the country. Such a situation reflects a conventional perception that the garden plants or ornamental plants have been regarded as a symbol of capitalism, representing the success, luxury, beauty or other metaphors indicating the winners of business war. But as the word "culture" means "cultivation" originally, horti "culture" or flori "culture" should have played some roles in cultivating lands as well as cultivation of human minds, leading to develop a modern "culture" which may lay emphases on personality, originality, partnership, cooperation, diversity and so forth. In this article, a brief history of garden plants in Japan, as well as some current movements in Japanese horticulture and floriculture, is reviewed with some commodities which possess messages on creating a new humane culture.

The purpose of this study is to analyze antioxidant activity and multidrug resistance reversing activity in several Korean colored soybean (Glycine max Merr.) cultivars. Antioxidant activity of methanol extracts from colored soybean cultivars was evaluated by TBARS (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances), DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) methods. By means of TBARS, cultivar "Jeonnam #1" showed the highest activity until 7 days, and followed by "Black #1", "Jinyul" and "Black #3", showing lower activity than that of BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene). Methanol extracts of all cultivars proved that DPPH radical scavenging activity is dose-dependent. Methanol extract from cultivar "Jeonnam #1" showed highest DPPH radical scavenging activity, and followed by cultivars "Black #1". MDR (multi-drug resistance reversing) activity, however, showed the highest effect in "Black #3" and the lowest "Black #1" cultivar. These results suggest that seed colors of soybean may play an important role in antioxidant activity and MDR activity.

Phenolics level, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant were determined from the methanol extracts of the eight medicinal plants using roots. Total phenolics were found as the highest levels in the methanol extracts of Arctium lappa, and followed by Youngia sonchifolia and Cirsium japonicum. Total amount of the each phenol compounds were detected in C. japonicum extracts (319.2 mg kg-1) as the greatest component, and followed by A. lappa (96.3 mg kg-1) and Y. sonchifolia (22.9 mg kg-1). Total flavonoid content showed the highest amount in methanol extracts from A. lappa (68.1 mg 100 g-1) and followed by Y. sonchifolia (11.2 mg 100 g-1) Lycoris radiate extracts (87.2%) had the highest nitrite scavenging activity and followed by A. lappa (81.5%) and Y. sonchifolia (77.5%). Methanol extracts of A. lappa at 25 mg 100 g-1 exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity by 90.8%, even though less activity than synthetic antioxidants Vitamin C or butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Level of polyphenols was highly correlated with anti oxidative activity (r2 = 0.85). The results suggest that several medicinal plants selected had the potent biological activities, and that their activities were differential depending on plant species.

Phytotoxicity, antioxidant activity, and cytotoxicity of the aqueous or methanol extracts from the young sprouts of the six Compositae medicinal plants were determined. Aqueous leachates at 40g dry tissue L-1 (g L-1) Cirsium japonicum and Aster yomena showed the highest inhibitory effect on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.). Total phenolic content showed the highest amount in methanol extracts from Ixeris dentata, and followed by A. yomena, and Cephalonoplos segetum. Methanol extracts of C. segetum and I. dentata at 25μg mL-1 exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity by 87.2, and 52.8%, respectively. By means of HPLC analysis, MeOH extracts of C. segetum had the highest amount of antioxidant chlorogenic acid. Based on MTT assay, the methanol extracts from Y. sonchifolia (IC50 = 65.7μg mL-1) showed the highest cytotoxicity against Calu-6. These results suggest that plant extracts had a dose-dependent biological potentials including phytotoxicity, antioxidant activity, and anticancer activity, and that their activities exhibited differently depending on plant species.

The present study was conducted to determine plant growth and physiological responses of corn, barnyardgrass, and soybean to ALA (5-aminolevulinic acid). ALA effect on early seedling growth of test plants was greatly concentration dependant, suggesting that it inhibits at higher concentrations. No significant difference in herbicidal activity of two types of ALA on plant height and weight of test plants was observed. Barnyardgrass was the most sensitive to ALA and followed by corn and soybean, indicating that both crop plants were less affected by ALA concentration as well as different growth stages than barnyardgrass. Greatly reduced chlorophyll contents from leaves of three plant species were observed with increasing of ALA concentration. Compared with untreated controls, higher amounts of three tetrapyrroles were detected from three crop plants, indicating more accumulation in ALA-treated plants. The differential selectivity among plant species would be explained with the differences in tetrapyrrole accumulating capabilities, the susceptibility of various greening groups of plant species to the accumulation of various tetrapyrroles, and their metabolism in various plant tissues. The results indicate that negative biological potential of ALA exhibited differently on plant species, and that the photodynamic herbicidal activity against susceptible plants highly correlated with the extent of tetrapyrrole accumulation by the species.