Environmental conditions are important in increasing the fruit sugar content and productivity of the new cultivar Autumn Sense of Actinidia arguta. We analyzed various soil properties at experimental sites in South Korea. A Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed between the soil properties and sugar content or productivity of Autumn Sense. Further, a decision tree was used to determine the optimal soil conditions. The difference in the fruit size, sugar content, and productivity of Autumn Sense across sites was significant, confirming the effects of soil properties. The decision tree analysis showed that a soil C/N ratio of over 11.49 predicted a sugar content of more than 7°Bx at harvest time, and soil electrical capacity below 131.83 μS/cm predicted productivity more than 50 kg/vine at harvest time. Our results present the soil conditions required to increase the sugar content or productivity of Autumn Sense, a new A. arguta cultivar in South Korea.

In order to select superior tree from Korea, five major phenolic compounds including (-)-epicatechin(EC), chlorogenic acid (ChA), hyperoside (HP), isoquercitrin (IQ), and procyanidin B2 (PC-B2) in hawthorn fruit were evaluated. We also compared these hawthorn fruits of five clones with Chinese hawthorn cultivars. HPLC with a diode-array detector was used to determine the contents of the individual compounds. Hawthorn fruits of five clones (selected from different area of Korea), and four Chinese hawthorn cultivars grown in the Korea Forest Research Institute (Suwon) were utilized. With their high functional components, Jungsun is the clone including the highest contents of EC (11.26 mg/g) and PC-B2 (24.46 mg/g). The clone of Chuncheon 15 had highest HP (0.53 mg/g) and IQ (0.41 mg/g). From the results, the clone of Jungsun and Chuncheon 15 can be evaluated to be selected breeding material for cultivar development.

Dental caries is the destruction of the enamel of teeth by Streptoccus mutans. S. mutans has been isolated from human dental plaque and is associated with the initial development of enamel lesions. We have studied the antibacterial action of the fruit of Callistemon citrin us against a cariogenic bacterium, S. mutans. From the fruit of C. citrinus, piceatannol (3,3',4',5-tetrahydroxystilbene) was isolated by repeated column chromatography with SiO2 and Sephadex LH-20. Its structure was elucidated by instrumental analysis using 1D-NMR, 2D-NMR and EI-MS. This compound was isolated from the fruit of C. citrin us for the first time. The anticarcinogenic activity of this compound was determined by using agar well-diffusion method and minimal inhibition concentration (MIC).

Five samples (Bakwoonbae, Chungsilbae, Sandolbae, Dolbae, and Chuwhangbae) of Pyrus species differing in their origin of production were analyzed for total phenolic content, vitamin C content, and antioxidant activities. Two antioxidant activities were measured by the free-radical scavenging activity and reducing power method. Total phenolic content of the Chungsilbae extract (20.35 mg/g) was higher than those of other pears. Vitamin C content in five Pyrus species ranged from 420.32 μg/g in Sandolbae to 659.75 μg/g in Bakwoonbae. Chungsilbae also had the highest free radical scavenging activity (76.56%) and reducing power (0.35).

For the prediction of multi-site rainfall with radar data and ground meteorological data, a rainfall prediction model was proposed, which uses the neural network theory, a kind of artifical intelligence technique. The input layer of the prediction model was constructed with current ground meteorological data, their variation, moving vectors of rainfall field and digital terrain of the measuring site, and the output layer was constructed with the predicted rainfall up to 3 hours. In the application of the prediction model to the Pyungchang river basin, the learning results of neural network prediction model showed more improved results than the parameter estimation results of an existing physically based model. And the proposed model comparisonally well predicted the time distribution of rainfall.