As the hangover relieving drink market has been expanded, there have been efforts to produce traditional drinks that can be easily taken through reducing material costs after finding materials with high alcohol-degrading activity from agricultural products and manufacturing drinks in a way to produce sikhye. Studies were made to know quality, the ability to relieve hangover and preference of drinks for which seven kinds of agricultural products, including shiitake mushrooms, were added in the forms of fresh juice, extracts and powder. Farm products showed the highest acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) when they were added in the form of powder before saccharification and shiitake mushrooms showed the highest enzyme activity when they were added in the form of powder. When added in the form of powder, people showed the lowest preference except when radish and hericium erinaceum were added. When bear puree was added to a mixture of powdered shiitake mushrooms, radish, bean sprouts and dadagi cucumber, enzyme activity got higher and people showed higher preference. An experiment of animal behaviors showed that the mixture had a high ability to relieve hangover in one or two hours after 10% or 40% alcohol was orally administered to mice due to long traveling distance of mice.

The effects of some essential oils and Sopophora extract on Frankliniella occidentalis adults, Myzus persicae adults, Plutella xylostella larvae, and Spodoptera exigua larvae were investigated. Insecticidal and phytotoxicity activities of emulsion in water formulations containing the active essential oils as active ingredients under laboratory and pot conditions were also tested. Based on these results, NRS-13 and NRS-24 formulations were selected to further assess as follows; the GC and GC-MS analysis on the active essential oils, the quantity analysis of the major components contained in the formulations, their insecticidal activities under pot and field conditions, and their oral, dermal, skin and eye irritation, and fish toxicities. Thus, the NRS-13 (BaechooSaferTM) and NRS-24 (JindiOutTM) formulations could be considered as insecticides for pest control.

Agricultural by-productsis a rich source of dietary fibers including arabinoxylans, which is found mainly in water-insoluble form and reported to have immunomodulatory activities. We investiglatedwhether solublearabinoxylan (AX)-enriched byproducts alters macrophage activity.Agricultural by-products wereorally given to mice for 4 weeks. Peritoneal macrophages from mice were assayed for scavenger receptor expression, phagocytosis, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated responses. Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines were determined 1 hour after intraperitoneal injection of LPS. Agricultural by-productstreated mice showed a higher expression of SRA and CD36, accompanied by enhanced phagocytosis of latex beads, relative to control mice. Upon stimulation with LPS ex vivo, macrophages from the byproducts group showed lower levels of CD86 and CD40 at the surface protein level and lower production of NO, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-6, compared with the control group. Theagricultural by-products group showed a decrease in serum levels of LPS-induced TNF-αand IL-6, while mice given crude byproducts, which was prepared without enzymatic hydrolysis, showed a reduction only in serum TNF-α,indicating that soluble arabinoxylans contributes to the immunomodulatory effect ofagricultural by-products. Our data present evidence that soluble arabinoxylan-enriched agricultural by-products can be an immune enhancing functional food.

Soil microorganism activity in an agricultural field is affected by various factors including climate conditions, soil chemical properties, and crop cultivation. In this study, we elucidate the correlation between microorganism activity and agricultural environment factors using the dehydrogenase activity (DHA) value, which is one of the indicators of soil microbial activity. As a result, the various factors noted above were related to the DHA value. Annual rainfall, soil Mg2+, bacterial and fungal diversities, types of crops, developmental stages, seasons, and cultivation status were highly correlated with the DHA value. Furthermore, next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis was used to identify that the type of crop affected soil microbial compositions of both bacteria and fungi. Soil used for soybean cultivation showed the highest relative abundance for Verrucomicrobia, Planctomycetes, and Acidobacteria but Actinobacteria and Firmicutes had the lowest relative abundance. In the case of soil used for potato cultivation, Actinobacteria had the highest relative abundance but Proteobacteria had the lowest relative abundance. Armatimonadetes showed the highest relative abundance in soil used for cabbage cultivation. Among the fungal communities, Mortierellomycota had the highest relative abundance for soybean cultivation but the lowest relative abundance for cabbage cultivation; further, Rozellomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Cercozoa had the highest relative abundance for cabbage cultivation. Basidiomycota had the highest relative abundance for potato cultivation but the lowest relative abundance for soybean cultivation.

In the growth of the Rubus coreanus Miquel fruits, the unripened (10 days) and ripened (25 days) fruits after flowering were harvested. The chemical characteristics of different maturational stages of the unripened and ripened fruits were investigated. Total amount of phenolic compounds was 4.00-7.56% in the unripened fruits and 3.78-5.57% in the ripened fruits, respectively. Furthermore, total amounts of organic acids such as malic, citric, succinic, and oxalic acids were 16.40 mg/ 100 g in the unripened fruits and 28.82 mg/100 g in the ripened fruits, respectively. In organic acids of the unripened and the ripened fruits, citric acid (8.76-15.47 mg/100 g) was the highest amount among other organic acids. Soluble sugars were significantly increased from 11.07 to 21.54% in the unripened and ripened fruits. Therefore, ripened fruits had the high levels of phenolic compounds, organic acids and soluble sugars. For the biological studies of R. coreanus, methanol extracts of R. coreanus leaves, fruits, and stems were evaluated for their insecticidal activities against Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae), Plutella xylostella (Lepioptera: Plutellidae) and Spodoptera litura (Lepioptera: Noctuidae) by leaf dipping method. From these results, the extract of R. coreanus leaves revealed potent insecticidal activity against P. xylostella. However, the methanol extracts of R. coreanus fruits and stems had no any insecticidal activity against M. persicae, P. xylostella and S. litura. The R. coreanus leaves have promising potential as new insecticidal agent against P. xylostella.

Environment friendly agricultural material products (EFAMs) in current market were evaluated for their insecticidal or acaricidal activities. EFAMs were evaluated against Tetranychus urticae, Plutella xylostella, Myzus persicae and Nilaparvata lugens in spray method. Several EFAMs indicated high control value in spray method. Hatchability of T. urticae was relatively high after EFAM treatment. some materials show high insecticidal activities against P. xylostella larvae but not against eggs. Few meterials showed more than 80% insecticidal activities against M. persicae and N. lugen. The control value of more than half the materials for pest control was lower than 60%. EFAMs containing S. flavescens, neem oil and Rape showed higher control value