This study was to investigate the effect of fermentation extracts on the concentration of serotonin and melatonin in the serum of the ICR mice. The ICR mice were divided into water control group, lactobacillus fermentation solution including (Lactobacillus paracasei and Bifidobacterium longum B6) control group, positive control group (milk and doxylamine succinate), negative control group (caffein) and the groups treated with the extracts of Berberis koreana bark (WE: water extracts, FE-L.P: fermentation extracts of Lactobacillus paracasei, FE-B.L: fermentation extracts of Bifidobacterium longum B6). After ten-day feeding treatment, the mean concentration of serotonin for water control, WE, FE-L.P and FEB. L group was 134.72, 183.01, 232.09 and 223.78 ng/ml, respectively. The mean concentration for FE-L.P and FE-B.L group were approximately 66% larger than that for water control group. The mean concentration of melatonin for water control, WE, FE-L.P and FE-B.L group was 76.92, 106.66, 157.56 and 141.81pg/ml, respectively. The mean concentration of melatonin for FE-L.P and FE-B.L group were also larger than that for water control group. Our results indicated that the fermentation extracts of Berberis koreana bark have relatively greater potential to induce secretion of serotonin and melatonin. Therefore, the fermentation extracts have antidepressant effect.

This study was performed to investigate the enhancement of cosmeceutical activities of Berberis koreana bark by different extraction processes. The extracts are WE (water extract at 100℃, control), USE (ultrasonification for 1 hours at 60℃ with water), HPE (high pressure for 5 minutes at 60℃ with water) and USE + HPE (ultrasonification process for 1 hours after high pressure for 5 minutes at 60℃ with water), respectively. The cytotoxicity of the extracts was in the range of 24.02~26.94% at 1.0 mg/ml concentration. The USE + HPE showed the lowest cytotoxicity. Compared to the WE, total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the USE + HPE increased to 121.5% and 154.2%. The USE + HPE showed the highest activity at 1.0 mg/ml concentration in 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, inhibition activity of xanthine oxidase and superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like test, respectively. Tyrosinase inhibition of WE, USE, HPE and USE + HPE at 1.0 mg/ml concentration was measured as 17.72, 19.62, 22.83 and 24.16%, respectively. Hyaluronidase inhibition activities of the USE + HPE were higher than 20.8%~29.5% of the WE. Our results suggested that the extracts from ultrasonification process after high pressure extraction has relatively high cosmeceutical activities, and that the bark of Berberis koreana could be considered as a candidate of new functional cosmetic agents.

The bark of Berberis koreana Palibin was fermented by Bifidobacterium longum B6 and Lactobacillus paracasei at 37℃ for 72 hour, then extracted by water solvent at 100℃ for 180 min. Total pholyphenol and flavonoid contents were improved by fermentation process, compared to conventional water extraction. The barks of B. koreana Palibin extracts by B. longum B6 (FE-B.L.) and by L. paracasei (FE-L.P.) showed 17% and 16% cytotoxicity on human normal cell lines(HEK293) at 1.0 mg/ml of the highest concentration, respectively, which was about 3~5% lower than 20% from normal extracts (NE). DPPH radical scavenging activity of the FE-B.L. and FE-L.P. were about 73% and 75.9% higher than 56.8% of NE. The highest inhibitory potency on xathine oxidase and superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activities were also measured as 31.9% and 61.9% by adding FE-L.P. of 1.0 mg/ml. On tyrosinase inhibition test, the FE-L.P. showed highest activity as 75.9% at 1.0 mg/ml. Generally, FE-L.P. showed higher antioxidant activities as well as higher tyrosinase inhibition activity, possibly due to high contents of total pholyphenol and flavonoid. In general, fermentation of barks of B. koreana Palibin has relatively better biological activities than normal extracts. Specifically, the extracts fermented by L. paracasei showed higher activities than that from B. longum B6.