Gastrodia elata Blume often has been used for the treatment of headaches, convulsions, hypertension, and neurodegenerative diseases. The main active constituents are gastrodin, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, vanillyl alcohol, 4-hydroxybenzylaldehyde and parishin A, B, C and E. Because Gastrodia elata has also unacceptable off-odor (swine barnyard-like) for food, there is a need to reduce it as well as allow for greater utilization as a functional food materials. In this study, a major off-odor producing substance of Gastrodia elata was fractionated by steam distillation and silica gel column chromatography. The substance was identified as p-cresol(4-methyl phenol) by GC-MS analysis and comparison of the retention time with that of an authentic compound in GC. The content of p-cresol in fermented Gastrodia elata was decreased. A fermented sample of Latobacillus sakei for 2 days was reduced to 54.7%, when compared with a unfermented sample. The five parishin derivatives in Gastrodia elata were identified by HPLC-MS analyses, and a comparison of HPLC retention times with those of authentic compounds. When compared with parishin derivatives of an unfermented Gastrodia elata, those of Gastrodia elata fermented by L. sakei, increased to 18.3% for 2 days. Increases of about 14.0~38.4% of the total phenolic compounds and 57.4~77.3% total flavonoids were found in fermented extracts, by 3 lactic acid bacteria strains. They were compared with 97.1±2.9 μg/g and 40.9±2.0 μg/g in the unfermented control, respectively. The extracts of Gastrodia elata Blume that were fermented by lactic acid bacteria had higher DPPH free radical scavenging activity and FRAP reducing power than the unfermented control.

Background: The present study assessed the response of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L., Jangdae) seed to NaCl and the effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on kenaf seed germination and vigor. Methods and Results: Seed germination ranged from 11.3% to 58.8% after 24 hours of immersion in NaCl concentrations from 0% to 0.5%. The priming treatments had lower electrical conductivity (EC) values for the seeds than for the control and a deteriorated palisade layer. Priming in 10% PEG for 48 hours increased the germination upto 96.3% in H2O solution and 98.8% in 0.3% NaCl solution compared to that of the control (78.8%). Germination synchronization, and shoot and root growth of the primed seeds were greater than those of the control. The T50 of the control in H2O and 0.3% NaCl solution was 22 and 28 times, respectively. After priming, nine times was sufficient to reach T50 in both solution. The mean number of days to germination (MDG) decreased from 1.43 days for the control to 0.55 days for 0% PEG in H2O solution and from 1.57 days for the control to 0.56 days for 0% PEG in 0.3% NaCl solution. The dry weight after the 10% PEG treatment was higher than that of the control. Conclusions: Taken together, 10% PEG treatment for 24 hours is recommended for kenaf seed invigoration before planting.

In order to breed the useful mutants in black raspberry, cultivated in Gochang-gun, leaf-petiol explants from shoot-proliferating culture was regenerated after irradiated with 30, 50 and 70 Gy gamma-ray. The LD50 dose of leaf-petiol explants was identified as 30Gy after two months. Morphological characteristics of the variants were observed such as stem variation, existence and nonexistence of spine, spine color, anthocyanin content, width of leaf, thick of leaf compared with donor cultivar. Of the 701 mutants, 14 lines with the useful mutant characters were selected and random amplified polymorphic DNA(RAPD) was carried out to confirm mutation state at the molecular level with 20 primers. There are many bands be revealed only in mutants and disappear in mutants reversely. RAPD analysis revealed a high level of genetic diversity among Control and mutants. Compared to Control, No. 14 mutant showed the highest genetic diversity. Also, the co-dominant SSR markers have allowed the evaluation of heterozygosity. Valuable mutants obtained will be useful for developing new cultivars and studying gene function in molecular level.

This study was carried out to investigate the improvement of soil physical and chemistry in black raspberry sequential field. We had used the subsoil-crusher, oriental herbal, perlite, popped rice hull, burned charcoal of rice hull and peat moss as a soil conditioner. On the whole, the physical and chemistry properties of treated-plots was higher than those of Control field after applying soil conditioners. Before planting, the pH and E.C. range of field was 4.9~5 and 0.5~0.6 ds/m, respectively. After applying soil conditioners, the pH and E.C range of Control field was altered to 4.3 and 2.2ds/m and the pH and E.C range of peat moss-field was 5.2 and 1.3 ds/m. The significant difference(p<0.05) in pH and E.C value was observed between Control-field and peat moss-field. In the size of soil aggregate structure, the aggregate structure weight of Control over 4mm long was 44 g and treatments of perlite, popped rice hull, burned charcoal of rice hull and peat moss was 53 g, 65g, 65g and 72g, respectively. There is a significant difference(p<0.05, 0.001) between Control and treatments. In the results of chlorophyll analysis, all of the treated-plots except for the oriental herbal have a high chlorophyll value (p<0.05, 0.001) compared to the Control. In view of the results so far achieved, there is a great difference on the frequency of dead plant between Control and treatments. The dead plants number of Control, subsoil-crusher, oriental herbal, perlite, popped rice hull, burned charcoal of rice hull and peat moss was 31, 21, 7, 12, 10, 12 and 2, respectively.

To select salt tolerant variants of rice, NaCl tolerant cell lines were selected from the embryo-cultured callus irradiated with gamma ray. The callus mass (g) and survival rate of irradiated (30, 50 Gy) calli were more increased than those of non-irradia