Background: To obtain useful safflower resources for breeding and research of functional materials, the present study was conducted to determine fatty acid compositions and antioxidant activities of 281 safflower accessions collected from East Asia including South Korea. Methods and Results: Lipid contents and fatty acids compositions were evaluated using soxhlet extraction and gas chromatography, respectively. A antioxidant activities were analyzed using a spectrophotometer. The evaluation range of safflower accessions showed very wide variation. In terms of lipid contents, the China accessions were higher than the collection from other regions, whereas antioxidant activities did not differ among regions. The result of the principal component analysis showed that the first and second principal component cumulatively explained 90.6% of the total variation. In clustering the safflower accessions, the tree showed four major clades. Group II (16 accessions) was high in lipid content, oleic acid and linoleic acid, whereas group III (50 accessions) exhibited higher antioxidant activities than other groups. Conclusions: It was recommended that the China collections be utilized as a useful resource for research on functional oil materials. These results provided valuable information for safflower breeders and researchers of functional food.

A resveratrol synthase (RS) gene was isolated from peanut (Arachis hypogaea, L. cv. Jinpoong) plants. This gene was placed under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter (CaMV35S) and introduced into two Korean varieties of potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cvs. Jasim and Jowon) plants by Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer. Putative transformants were screened by PCR with primers designed from CaMV 35S promoter, NOS terminator and RS gene. Most of selected transgenic potato plants showed the amplification of expected fragments by PCR of genomic DNA with gene-specific primers, while they were absent in untransformed control plants. Expression of the resveratrol synthase gene was also examined by northern blot analysis. The transformants showed a band which was lacking in the control plant, confirming that the introduced gene is transcribed into mRNA in the transformants. The strength of the band, which reflected the level of mRNA expression, differed among the individual transformants. Among the transformants obtained, the highest trans-resveratrol content in the transgenic young leaves of purple-fleshed "Jashim" was 2.11 μgg-1 fresh weight and that in the microtubers in vitro of purple fleshed "Jashim" was 8.31 μgg-1 fresh weight. This amount of resveratrol may have a positive biological effect on human health.

Equilibrium headspace analysis in combination with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to identify volatile compounds from the leaves of 76 individual plants of Agastache rugosa collected from 16 regions in South Korea. Chemometric inves

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of forms and levels of nitrogen fertilizer on plant growth and essential oil production of Agastache rugosa. Calcium nitrate had more influenced on length and width of leaves and lateral branch length than did urea. When nitrogen fertilizer level was increased from 12 kgN/I0a to 24kgN/I0a, plant growth was stimulated and dry matter of leaf and inflorescence were increased. Top dry matter of plant with calcium nitrate treatment (38.4 g) was heavier than that of urea treatment (32.8 g). Interactions among accession and nitrogen form and nitrogen rate were not significantly different for top dry matter. The forms and rate of nitrogen fertilizer did not affect estragole content. The estragole contents was higher in leaf (91.8%) than that of inflorescence (81.3%). While the essential oil content was not affected by different nitrogen forms, nitrogen level affected the essential oil contents positively by increasing dry matter. Essential oil yield was not affected by accession or nitrogen form, but by nitrogen rate. With increasing N application from 12kgN/I0a to 24 kgN/I0a, essential oil yield was increased by 95.8 %.