After ethanol (BM-E and RW-E) and hot-water (BM-HW and RW-HW) extracts were fractionated from two herbal mixtures (BM and RW), their physiological activities were investigated. All extracts consisted of more than 50% of neutral sugar, with their total polyphenol levels higher than flavonoid levels. Radical scavenging activities of EtOH extracts remained significantly higher compared to that of hot-water extracts, and in particular, RW-E showed consistently higher antioxidant activity than BM-E. When anti-inflammatory activities of the extracts were evaluated by LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells at 10~500 μg/mL non-cytotoxicity doses, BM-E showed significantly higher levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and nitric oxide inhibitory activity than those of hot-water extracts and RW-E. Murine peritoneal macrophage cells were shown to be enhanced in crude polysaccharides (BM-CP and RW-CP fractionated from BM-HW and RW-HW) compared to hot-water extracts and polysaccharide K (PSK, positive control). Especially, RW-CP exhibited higher activity than BM-CP, and component sugar analysis showed that BM-CP mainly contained galacturonic acid, glucose, arabinose, galactose, and xylose (34.5%, 33.9%, 16.1%, 7.1%, and 6.3%, respectively), whereas RW-CP showed different measurements (29.5%, 59.2%, 5.0%, 4.5%, and 0.2%). In conclusion, two herbal mixtures could contain varying sets of physiological activities dependent on different extraction and fractionation methods.

For the purpose of developing new immunomodulatory agents from broccoli, ethanol extract (BCEE), hot water extract (BCHW), and crude polysaccharide (BCCP) were isolated from broccoli, and their immunomodulatory activities and chemical properties were examined. In the in vitro cytotoxicity analysis, BCHW and BCCP did not affect the growth of tumor cells and normal cells. Murine peritoneal macrophages stimulated with BCCP showed higher production of IL-6, IL-12, and TNF- α cytokines than those stimulated with BCHW. Also, BCHW and BCCP did not show proliferation of splenic lymphocytes. In the in vitro assay for intestinal immunomodulatory activities, only BCCP enhanced GM-CSF secretion and the bone marrow cell-proliferating activity via cells in Peyer’s patches at 1,000 μg/mL. Also, BCHW mainly contained 33.7% neutral sugars, such as arabinose, glucose, and galactose, and 30.7% uronic acid, and BCCP consisted of 42.6% neutral sugars, including arabinose, galactose, and glucose, and 50.5% uronic acid. The above results lead us to conclude that crude polysaccharide (BCCP) isolated from broccoli causes considerably high cytokine production in peritoneal macrophages and bone marrow cell proliferation, and the polysaccharide extraction process is indispensable for separation of new immunomodulatory agents from broccoli.

Two important loci, designated Rhg1 and Rhg4, are responsible for most resistance to soybean cyst nematode (SCN). The objective of this study was to survey single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and to map the SCN-resistant gene, Rhg4, on soybean genetic ma