Stem and root of elm trees have used as traditional medical materials, but there is little information on the distribution and resources of habitats. Korean native growing Ulmus spp. (U. davidiana var. Japonica, U. parvifolia, U. davidiana, and U. macrocarpa) genetic resources studied through The National Forest Inventory of Korea data and field survey. The distributions of U. davidiana var. japonica according to elevation distributed evenly. Both U. parvifolia and U. davidiana were inhabited mostly at less than 200 m of altitude. Each Ulmaceae species widely were distributed nationwide, but a dominant species was different depending on locals. It observed that Ulmaceae inhabits mainly in steep slopes of 31-45 degrees. Most of the habitats regenerated by natural seeding and the most abundant species were a codominant tree. Distribution of trees in U davidiana var. japonica was 7 m-13 m, and in young U. parvifolia and U. macrocarpa, more than 25% of young trees less than 7 m observed. The distribution of the diameter of breast height of the U. davidiana var. japonica was 46.4% for 11-20 cm, 52.6% for 11-20 cm in U. parvifolia. The average T/R ratio was 0.83, and the mean weight ratio of root bark was 62%. As the results of this study, the domestic Ulmaceae biomassare very small. It is difficult to harvest in that the habitat on the slope. Thus, it is too hard to develop functional materials using biomass at present. Therefore, it is necessary to develop technology for the selection and propagation of elite trees of Ulmaceae.

Cassia obtusifolia L. is commonly used as medicinal foods to treat gastrointestinal disease in many countries. This study evaluated the anti-constipation effects of ethanolic extract of Cassia obtusifolia L. in rats with loperamide-induced constipation. Diffferent concentrations of ethanolic extract of Cassia obtusifolia L. (0, 10, 250, and 500 mg/kg) was administered to rat orally once daily for 3 weeks following loperamide treatment. Six-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats (N=25) were randomly divided into five groups: normal control and experimental groups and injected loperamide intraperitoneally to induce constipation in the latter four experimental groups. Following the induction of loperamide-induced constipation, a marked decrease was observed in the fecal weight and water content discharged for over 1 week and intestinal transit time while an increase was observed in the number of fecal pellets remaining in the colonic lumen as compared with the normal control group. These conditions were significantly alleviated following the administration of the two doses (250 and 500 mg/kg) of ethanolic extract of Cassia obtusifolia L. when compared to the loperamide-treated (constipation control) group. More specifically, the number of fecal pellets in the colon was 3, 5, 4, 2.8, and 1.2 in the five groups, respectively and the corresponding GIT ratio was 70.77, 56.59, 58.67, 66.81, and 72.10%, respectively. The fecal water content, transit distance, and GIT ratio in the high-dose treatment group were significantly higher than that in the medium-dose treatment group, but a significant decrease in the number of fecal pellets in the colon. In conclusion, the Cassia obtusifolia L. extract is suggested to have beneficial effects as a therapeutic and preventive strategy to alleviate constipation and to relieve the symptoms of constipation such as pain, flatulence, distention, bloating, and unpleasant taste.

Insect peptides have been extensively studied due to beneficial effects in the treatment of infectious diseases. Melittin, a fundamental component of honeybee venom produced by European honeybee Apis mellifera, has applied to prevent various inflammatory disease and bacterial infections in human. However, the therapeutic application of melittin is limited due to its low stability, hemolytic activity and expensive manufacturing costs. In this study, we aimed to discovery unknown peptides from the Apis mellifera and evaluate its antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli KACC 10005. A total 15,853 peptide sequences were diciphered using Illumina HiSeq 2500 next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform and analyzed based on the Apis mellifera official Gene Set Version 3.2 (amel_OGSv3.2) and the Collection of Anti-Microbial Peptides (CAMPR3) database. All the peptide sequences and annotation data sets were combined and sorted by physicochemical features of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), such as short peptide length <=50, positive charge, isoelectric point (8.0<=pl<=12), and aggregation propensity (in-vitro: <=500, in-vivo: –40<= Na4vSS <=60). Among the screened peptides, four unknown peptide candidates, named AMP1-4, were chemically synthesized and tested for antimicrobial activity in comparison with a reference peptide, melittin. Inhibition of bacterial growth was observed in the AMP4 treated group from 6 hours to 48 hours post-treatment against E. coli. These results suggest that honeybee-derived peptide sequences can be applied as natural resources to acquire novel AMPs and the peptide sequences derived parameters are enough to recognize antibacterial peptides. In addition, the selected novel peptide candidate, AMP4, has antibacterial activity.

Momordica charantia is therophyte vine plants. It is called natural insulin and contains carantine and vitamin C and so on. Momordica charantia is one of the representative subtropical crops as a functional crop, showing efficacy on improvement of diabetes, cancer, abdominal obesity and improvement of hypertension. According to climate change, Momordica charantia is growing cultivation area, but there is still insufficient research for insect pest occurrence and insecticides. Due to the lack of proper control measures, the damage caused by insect pests is increasing as the year goes by. This study was conducted to investigate the occurrence and damage of insect pests in Momordica charantia and utilize it as basic data for development of insect pest control technology. As a result, 5 orders of 13 species of insect pests were investicated. Among them, Aphis gossypii, Frankliniella intonsa, and Frankliniella occidentalis showed high density. In particular, Aphis gossypii showed the highest density in mid-May, also Frankliniella intonsa and Frankliniella occidentalis showed high density in the middle of June. The leaf damage caused by the larvae of Palpita indica was observed in late June. After mid July, the biginning of the high temperature period, the insect pest density decreased, but the damages caused by moths were severe.