Salicornia europaea L. (SE) as a halophyte has been widely used as a seasoned vegetable with various biological activities, including anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic activities. In particular, the desalted SE (DSE) has been considered an attractive alternative compared to SE for its anti-obesity effect. 1-Deoxynojirimycin (1-DNJ) is one of the known α-glucosidase inhibitors and has been reported to have similar biological activities with SE. This study reports the anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory activities of DSE fermented by Bacillus velezensis K26 (BVDSE) previously isolated from Korean fermented soybean paste and elucidated to produce 1-DNJ in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and RAW264.7 cells. BVDSE (5%) did not show cytotoxicity in 3T3-L1 cells and inhibited lipid accumulation, which was decreased to 23% in the differentiated cells. BVDSE did not inhibit the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, while it remarkedly inhibited IL-6 on lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW264.7 cells. Taken together, these results indicate that the fermentation of DSE with B. velezensis K26 as a 1-DNJ producer has more significant anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects than even non-fermented DSE, assuming the synergistic effects by 1-DNJ production from B. velezensis K26, by which it could be highlighted that BVDSE may be considered for use as a functional food supplement.

In this study, thirty-eight lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains were isolated from Kimchi (Korean traditional fermented food) and screened for probiotic characterization in a series of in vitro tests, including resistance to low pH, tolerance to bile salts, hydrophobicity, antibiotic resistance and antioxidant activity. Firstly, twenty-two strains displayed survival in acid and bile passage conditions. Secondly, the strains KCCP 11349 and KCCP 11356 were observed to have high cell surface hydrophobicity with 63.9 and 98.8 %, respectively. Functionality of these potential probiotic isolates was supported by their antioxidant activity. Altogether, the strain KCCP 11349 showed characteristics similar to or even better than reference strain Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Finally, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was conducted to identify potential probiotic strains and KCCP 11349 was identified as Lactobacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum.

The objective of this study was to investigate the physicochemical characteristics of bear, pig, and cow biles to determine their authenticities for safe food distribution. The main bile acids of bear bile were tauroursodeoxycholic acid and taurochenodeoxycholic acid, while glycochenodeoxycholic acid and taurochenodeoxycholic acid for pig bile and taurocholic acid and glycocholic acid for cow bile were majorly detected by HPLC analysis. HPLC analysis was effective in monitoring of several samples imported as bear bile if employed to determine the authenticity of each bile. After the analysis of fatty acid composition by GC analysis, the ratio of the oleic acid of bear bile was relatively low compared to pig and cow biles. The ratio of the linoleic acid of bear bile was also similar to pig bile, whereas it had a tendency to be high compared to cow bear. The genetic analysis of the imported bile samples was mostly in agreement with the results of HPLC and GC analysis to identify the origin of imported biles. Finally, this study on the identification of bile origin by physicochemical analysis can give basic information to monitor the origin of biles and further to establish a reliable system for bear bile distribution.

Lactic acid bacteria were cultivated from the gut of insects and analyzed. The gut samples were obtained from Anoplocnemis dallasi, Apis mellifera, Diestrammena coreana, Gonolabis marginalis, and Mycalesis gotama. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that the culture-dependent lactic acid bacteria isolated from the insect gut samples belonged to the genera Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus, Leuconostoc, and Weissella. The genera Enterococcus and Lactococcus were dominant, constituting 57% and 25% of the isolated strains, respectively. The distribution of lactic acid bacteria was found to differ according to the insect species. However, because culture-dependent methods identify only a portion of lactic acid bacterial communities, the use of culture-independent methods in future studies will be required to complement the methods used in the present study.

김치는 한국을 대표하는 젖산발효식품으로 현재까지 김치에서 분리한 다양한 유산균종들이 생산하는 박테리오신에 대한 연구가 진행되어왔다. Lactococcus, Lactobacillus,Leuconostoc 및 Pediococcus 속 균주들이 여기에 속하며, 특이한 점은 이들 김치 유래 박테리오신은 김치 산패균으로알려진 Lactobacillus plantarum을 지시균으로 사용하여 대부분 탐색되었다. 이들 박테리오신은 유산균과 Listeria mo-nocytogenes을 포함한 그람양성균에 대하여 항균활성을 나타냈으며, 이들 중 몇몇은 E. coli 및 Salmonella Typhimu-rium과 같은 그람음성균에 대하여도 항균활성을 나타냈다.또한 이들이 생산하는 박테리오신은 대부분 class II에 속하는 저분자량의 박테리오신으로 pH 및 열에 매우 안정한특성을 나타내었다. 하지만 이들 중 Lactobacillus paraplan-tarum C7가 생산하는 paraplantaricin C7만이 신규 박테리오신으로 이들 박테리오신의 아미노산 서열 분석 및 박테리오신 생산 유전자의 유전학적 해명은 비교적 잘 알려지지 않았다. 앞으로 다양한 종류의 김치 시료로부터 신규 박테리오신 생산 균주의 탐색 및 김치의 metagenome 정보를기초로 한 신규 박테리오신 유전자 확보 등의 연구가 진행되어야 할 것으로 생각된다.

The Lactobacillus brevis 340G strain isolated from traditional Korean fermented food (kimchi) produced 15.50mMof γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) after 48 h of cultivation in MRS media containing 1% L-monosodium glutamate(MSG). The culture conditions of Lb. brevis 340G were optimized for GABA production. Lb. brevis 340G was cul-tivated at 30oC in optimized MRS media containing 3% sucrose and 2% yeast extract with 3% MSG, resulting inmaximum GABA production (68.77mM) after 54 h of cultivation. Skim milk fermented with Lb. brevis 340G pro-duced 4.64mM of GABA in the presence of 1% MSG. These results suggest that Lb. brevis 340G could be usedas a starter for functional fermented foods and skim milk fermented with Lb. brevis 340G could be further devel-oped to become functional dairy food fortified with GABA.