The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of drip irrigation volume on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) grown in a greenhouse using perlite medium. Plants were treated by three different irrigation treatment I0, I25, and I50 (where irrigation volume of I25 and I50 was 25% and 50% higher than I0, having limited or no leaching). Growth characteristics of plants, yield and water use efficiency were measured. The result showed that plant height, leaf length and leaf width were lowest in the I0 treated plants. However, these parameters were not statistically significant differences between the plants that were grown in the I25 and I50 treatment. Soluble solids content, acidity and dry matter of 111th, 132nd, and 143rd days harvested tomato were higher in the plants irrigated with lowest volume (I0) than the higher volume (I25 or I50). In addition, water content was lower in the 111th and 132nd days of harvested tomatoes from the I0 treatment. The number of big-size tomatoes (>180 g) was significantly higher in the I25 irrigated plants. There was no significant difference in the total number of harvested fruits among the treatments. The average fruit weight and total yield of harvested tomatoes were lowest in the I0 treated plants. The water consumption of tomato was not significantly different amongst the treatments but water use efficiency was lowest in the I0 treatment. Principal component analysis revealed that total soluble solid and acidity of tomato showed a positive correlation between each other. These results suggest that I25 was the optimum irrigation treatment for tomato based on its measured growth characteristics, yield and water use efficiency.

The influenza virus is an important respiratory risk affecting humans, and effective treatments are needed. Some oriental medicines are currently applied for treatment of common colds as well as influenza infection. Previous studies have reported that the therapeutic properties of MA-128 are effective for treatment of psoriasis antiasthmatic and atopic dermatitis. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic properties of the novel herbal medicine, MA-128, for treatment of influenza virus infection by oral administration. MA-128 is an active natural biological compound from herbal-marine origin. The results showed that oral administration of MA-128 in mice could confer a survival benefit against Type A influenza virus infection. Daily oral administration of MA-128 resulted in delayed death in infected mice for three days against mouse adapted H3N2 (A/Philippines/2/82). However, it protected more than 60% of mice from lethal infection of 2009 pandemic H1N1 (A/Korea/CJ01/2009) influenza virus. In addition, lung viral titers were significantly reduced at seven days post infection (~100 times) compared with mock-treated mice and viruses were cleared at 9 dpi only in the MA-128 treated groups. This study demonstrated the potential of the novel herbal medicine, MA-128, as an herbal remedy against influenza A viruses.