Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to valuable chemicals is a promising way of storing renewable energy through electric-to-chemical energy conversion, while its large-scale application is in urgent need of cheap and high-performance catalysts. Herein, we invent a convenient method to synthesize N-doped porous carbon by ammonia etching the pyrolysis carbon of petroleum pitch. We found the ammonia etching treatment not only increase the pyridinic-N content, but also enlarge the specific surface area of the petroleum pitch-based porous carbon. As a cheap and easily available catalyst for carbon dioxide electroreduction, up to 82% of Faradaic efficiency towards carbon monoxide was obtained at − 0.9 V vs the reversible hydrogen electrode in 0.1 M KHCO3. After a long time electrocatalysis of more than 20 h, the Faradaic efficiency of carbon monoxide remains 80%, indicating the porous carbon as made have an ultra-high stability as catalyst for carbon dioxide reduction. Our work provides a new technology to economically prepare efficient electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction.

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of hydrophilic polymer (HP) mixture ratio (Control, 1.0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, and 10.0%) on growth of eggplant (Solanum melongena) for lower maintenance urban agriculture via green roofs. Although it was not statistically significant (p > 0.05), substrate temperature was decreased as hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio were increased. High substrate water content (95%) was found consistently in growing media under elevated hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio at over 5% during the entire growing period. Substrate electronic conductivity was increased as hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio were increased. Growth index was decreased as hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio was increased. It was reduced about 1/3 and 1/5 compared to that of Control in HP5.0 and HP10.0 treatment plants, respectively. Number of leaves, leaf length, and leaf width were decreased in following order: Control> HP1.0> HP2.5> HP5.0> HP10.0 treatments. There numbers were significantly lower in HP5.0 and HP10.0 treatment plants. Dry weight of shoot and root were decreased as hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio was increased. They were reduced by 1/4 compared to those of Control treatment plants. In addition, visual value was decreased as hydrophilic polymer mixture ratio was increased. Plants grown in HP1.0, HP2.5, and HP5.0 treatments all survived. However, plants grown in the HP10.0 treatment had the lowest survival rate (56%) after 3 months of growing. These results indicate that the advantage of adding hydrophilic polymer to green roof growing media may greater during dry periods. However, the proper mixture proportion of hydrophilic polymer should be determined according to different characteristics of growing media and plant species.

We investigated genetic diversity among and within the populations of cultivated ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer ) using SRAP profiles. A total of 24 ginseng plants were sampled from the three populations (two from China, one from Korea). Since all these populations are previously shown closely related to each other assister groups, we used Panax quinquefolium L. and wild ginseng as a reference species, which is not "within the sister group". All individuals from the three populations were screened with a total of 36 primer pairs with 26 primers generated from 328 SRAP bands of DNA gels. The mean gene diversity (HE) was estimated to be 0.057 within populations (range 0.032-0.067), and 0.086 at the species level. The genetic differentiation (Gst=0.31) indicates that genetic variation apportioned 30% among populations and 70% within populations. Generally, the result of this study indicates that ginseng contains high molecular variation in its populations.

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench.) is an alternative crop belonging to the Polygonaceae family. Buckwheat has been well known as a plant source of rutin, quercetin, kaempferol-3-rutinoside and other phenolic compounds. Buckwheat contains more rutin than most of the other plants, which exhibits antioxidative, antihemorrhagic and blood vessel protecting properties. Phenylalanin ammonia-lyase (PAL), chalcone synthase (CHS), flavone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), and anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) were important enzymes involved in the flavonoid biosynthesis in buckwheat. In this study, we have purified full-length PAL, CHS, F3H and ANS from buckwheat using RACE PCR with degenerated primers targeted to conserved regions of orthologous sequences PAL, CHS, F3H and ANS available. The open reading frame of FePAL was 2112 nucleotides long, encodes for 704 amino acids. FePAL gene shares 80-81% identity and 88-90% similarity with Arabidopsis thaliana PAL1, Capsicum annuum PAL, Lactuca sativa PAL, and Populus trichocarpa PAL2. The cDNA of FeCHS has 1179 nucleotides open reading frame, encoding for 393 amino acids. FeCHS has identities and similarities ranging 84-86% and 92-95%, respectively, with other CHSs from P. trichocarpa, Citrus sinensis, Gerbera hybrid, and Vitis rotundifolia, whereas this gene shares 93% identity and 98% similarity with Polygonum cuspidatum. The cDNA of FeF3H has 1101 nucleotides open reading frame, encoding for 367 amino acids. FeF3H has identities and similarities ranging 76-81% and 92-97%, respectively, with other F3Hs from Gossypium hirsutum, Dimocarpus longan, Garcinia mangostana, Camellia sinensis, Vitis vinifera, Rubus coreanus, Pyrus communis, Glycine max, and Actinidia chinensis. The open reading frame of FeANS was 1074 nucleotides long, encodes for 358 amino acids. FeANS gene shares 74-76% identity and 94-96% similarity with Gypsophila elegans, C. sinensis and G. hirsutum. These result provieded the theoretical basis for the metabolic engineering on buckwheat.

Allium sativum, belongs to a member of the onion family (Alliaceae) are economically important vegetables because of the culinary value and medicinal purpose. Using PCR strategy with degenerated primers targeted to conserved regions of orthologous phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) sequences available, full-length PAL and C4H from A. sativum. The amino acid sequence of these genes is highly conserved, particularly AsPAL and AsC4H has greater than 70% amino acid identity to other plants. AsPAL and AgC4H were most highly expressed in roots of A. sativum, whereas lowest level of transcript was detected in flower. Phenolic compounds most highly produced in flowers of A. sativum. The presented sequences and expression an alysis of PAL and C4H will provide possible material to enhance the understading of phenolic compounds synthesis in A. sativum.

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables. Bitter melon contains an array of biologically active plant chemicals including triterpenes, proteins, and steroids. The fruit is useful in gout, rheumatism and subacute cases of the spleen and liver diseases. It is supposed to purify blood and dissipate melancholia. It has also been shown to have hypoglycaemic properties (anti-diabetic) in animal as well as human studies. Raw materials of used in pharmaceuticals, health food, cosmetics, food, perfumery and other industries. However, bitter melon is not popular in Korea. For research, development and commercialization of bitter melon in Korea, we collected 13 varieties of bitter melon from domestic andabroad. We study biological and chemical characteristics of bitter melon. In general frui tsize and weight of Philippines and Japanese varieties was larger than that of Chinese and Korean. We are studying chemical analysis of useful compound (diosgenin and GABA) from bitter melon.