Steaming is a method that has traditionally been used for medicinal plant extraction. This study investigated nitrite oxide production, ferrous ion chelating activity, α-glucosidase, xanthine oxidase, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities of ethanol, acetone and hot-water extracts of Codonopsis lanceolata prepared by steaming seven times. MTT assay showed that each extract was non-toxic up to a concentration of 700 μg/mL confirming that there was no cytotoxicity in all extracts. The α-glucosidase, xanthine oxidase, and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activities exhibited by the hot-water extract obtained from steaming seven times were higher (83.1%) than the other extracts. Higher production of nitrite oxide and better ferrous chelating activity was recorded with hot-water extract compared to ethanol and acetone extracts. These results indicated that more steaming of Codonopsis lanceolata extracts would be required to validate the possibility of developing antioxidants. Also, further study is needed to determine if the components present in the tested extracts might be useful in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. These results showed that hot-water extracts may be useful for their antioxidant and the production inhibitory activity of nitrite oxide. It will be helpful in the investigation of the constituent analysis of the steam-processed product of Codonopsis lanceolata.

This study was investigated the contents of total polyphenol, flavonoids and antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of Codonopsis lanceolata extracts according to different steaming times. The contents of total polyphenol and flavonoid proportionally increased from 6.45 mgGAE/g to 18.26 mgGAE/g and 2.01 mgRE/g to 6.12 mgRE/g according to ethanol extracts at EDS7. DPPH radical scavenging activity was found to have been 15.26~65.2% and showed the highest level of antioxidant activity at EDS7 was 65.2%. The activity of ABTS radical scavenging and SOD-like activity were also the same result. DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity was related to the number of steaming, and the scavenging activity was increased up to 7 times of steaming. The antimicrobial activity of EDS7 had strong antioxidant activity. Antimicrobial activities were examined against 5 microorganisms related to pathogens and food poisoning. The antimicrobial Activity was different depending on the bacteria, but it was effective at the concentration of 300 mg/mL rather than 150 mg/mL. These results showed that Codonopsis lanceolata extracts with a different number of steaming would be conducted to confirm the possibility of developing antimicrobial and antioxidant. It will be helpful in the study of component analysis of Codonopsis lanceolata extracts processed products.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of nine times repetitive steaming and drying process Sunsik diets on antioxidant activity in obese mice fed high fat diets to prevent oxidative stress, using drying materials comprising 23 kinds of cereals (61.5%), beans (30.0%), sweet potato and potato (3.0%), fruits (2.0%), vegetables (3.0%), and stevioside, a natural sweetener (0.5%). We produced three samples: the experimental group was classified into the normal diet group (control), the high fat diet group (HF), and the high fat diet group + the Sunsik group (3HFS, 7HFS, 9HFS) fed to the mice for eight weeks. As a result, the serum, liver lipid peroxide, and nitric oxide levels were significantly higher in the HF group than in the C group at p<0.05 level, and the NO level was lower in the Sunsik supplemented groups. The antioxidant enzyme catalase activity significantly decreased in the HF group at the p<0.05 level compared to the C group. The total antioxidant activity of the C group was significantly higher in serum, liver, and kidney tissues than the HF group (p<0.05). The anthocyanin level in liver and spleen tissue was significantly higher in the group fed Sunsik than in the HF group.

To increase the functional material content of soybean, a repetitive steaming and drying process was used. We investigated the changes in the total polyphenol content, the antioxidant activity, and the angiotensin-Ⅰ converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition in soybean following nine rounds of steaming and drying. Soybean was steamed 9 times for 2 h and then dried 9 times from 55℃ to 73℃ for 3 h. The total polyphenol content in the soybean reached a maximum value of 60.47 mg GAE eq./100 g at 73℃ while the total polyphenol content in the raw soybean reached 25.17 mg GAE eq./100 g. In the raw soybean samples, the DPPH radical scavenging activity (5 mg/mL) was 8.04% but it increased by 43.29% after drying 9 times to 73℃. ABTS radical scavenging activity also improved following 9 rounds of steaming and drying. ACE inhibitory activity of the soybean dried 9 times at 73℃ was 58.94% at 10 mg/mL. These results showed that steaming and drying soybean 9 times enhanced the antioxidant activity and the ACE inhibitory activity of soybean. Therefore, more research on the biological and anti-hypertensive activity of soybean using this steaming and drying method is necessary.