Soybean seeds contain many biologically active secondary metabolites, such as proteins, saponins, isoflavones, phytic acids, trypsin inhibitors and phytosterols. Among them, saponins in soybeans have attracted considerable interest because of their health benefits. Soyasaponin A and B are the most abundant types of saponins found in soybeans along with soyasapogenol (aglycone), which is a precursor of soyasaponin. The main purpose of this experiment was to determine the concentration of soyasapogenol in soybean seeds and sprouts as a function of seed size, usage, seed coat color and seed cotyledon color. The 79 Korean soybean varieties were cultivated at Yesan of Chungnam in 2006 for the analysis of soyasapogenol using HPLC with Evaporative Light Scattering Detection (ELSD). The total average concentration of soyasapogenol was 1313.52~mug~;g-1 in soybean seeds and 1377.22~mug~;g-1 in soybean sprouts. Soybean sprouts were about 5% higher than soybean seeds in average total soyasapogenol concentration. In the process of sprouting, the average soyasapogenol A content decreased by approximately 1.6%, but soyasapogenol B and total soyasapogenol increased by 8.31% and 4.88%, based on the content of soybean seeds. When classified according to the size of seeds, the total soyasapogenol concentration of soybean seeds were not significantly different (p<0.05) On average, small soybean seeds were increased by as much as 103.14~mug~;g-1 in sprouting process. As a function of the use of the seeds, The total soyasapogenol in soybean seeds were significantly different (p<0.05). While, the soybean sprouts were not significant different (p<0.05). Altogether, sprout soybean seeds show the greatest change in content during the germination process. When seeds with different coat colors were compared, the total soyasapogenol concentration of soybean with yellow seed coats (1357.30~mu g~;g1 ) was slightly higher than that of soybean with black (1260.30~mug~;g-1 ) or brown (1263.62~mug~;g-1 ) seed coats. For the color of the cotyledon, the total soyasapogenol concentration was significantly increased in green cotyledon during the germination and seedling process. The results of this study suggest the functional characteristics of soybeans through quantitative analysis of soyasapogenol. In addition, the concentration of soyasapogenol exhibited a change during the germination process, which was evaluated by the nutritional value of the soybean sprouts.

The leaves of Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. is the source of pharmaceutically valuable terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) such as anticancer drugs vinblastine and vincristine. In particular, vindoline and catharanthine are harvested from leaves and used for the semisynthetic production of vinblastine and vincristine. Because of this, catharanthine and vindoline can be used to screen for high-yielding TIA cultivars. In this study we determined the TIAs concentrations of the leaves of 77 different cultivars of C. roseus. Serpentine contents among the 77 germplasms showed highest concentration in Vinca Pacifica Apricot (519.0 μg/g DW) while vindoline (2082.3 μg/g DW) and catharnathine (2903.4 μg/g DW) were the highest in Vinca Pacifica Peach. Additionally, Vinca Pacifica Peach (5041.0 μg/g DW) had the highest total TIAs concentrations. The 77 germplasms were classified into seven types according to their characteristic: Vinca Sunshower, Vinca Sunstorm, Vinca Cooler, Vinca Pacifica, Vinca Mediterranean, Vinca Titan, Vinca Stardust. Among the seven types, Vinca Sunstorm (3120.4 μg/g DW) had the highest average total TIAs concentrations in C. roseus leaves. This study indicates that cultivars of Vinca Sunstorm type have the potential to be industrial important cultivars for the production of vinblastine and vincristine.