The medical mineral menas a single mineral or a complex of minerals. It is natural material. using the medical action of he major or the minor elements, and traditional medicine stuff which has been used since long time ago. Jusa, cinnabar as the mineral name, is the product of the hydrothermal process. It is used to relax the body and cure high blood pressure, apoplexy and cardiopathy. Jusais the major component of "An shin hwan" and "Woo hwang chung shim hwan" nowadays because it has such an excellent calm effect. In addition, it is used to cure cancers such as esophageal cancer and gastric cancer. Jusa composed of mercuric sulfide causes mercury poisoning such as Minamata disease. It is dealt with mineralogical property and chemical composition medical stuff in Korea and China, as well asmercury poisoning and medical action of Jusa in this study. In order to predct accumulation of the interior of the body of the major and minor elements in Jusa, leaching experiment of Jusa by artificial gastric juice was done as well as thermodynamic reaction modelling to know concentration of each species of body fluid. The minor elements of 24 species such as As, Pb, Cd, a and Fe by leaching reaction of Jusa and artificial gastric juice were leached. We can know the fact that as is less than 1 ppm, Hg is less than 25 ppm and Cd and m are not detected. In addition, mercury exists as species of Hg2+, HgCl+, HgCl2, HgCl3-, HgCl42-, HgClOH, HgS(H2S)2, Hg(HS)3-, HgS22-, HgOH and Hg(OH)2 by reaction modelling between Jusa and artificial gastric juice. The concentration of sulfide complexes is 24.2 ppm and that of others is less than 10 ppm. According to increasing pH, the concentration of HgS(H2S)2, Hg(HS)3+, HgS22- and Hg(OH)2 increases, whereas the concentration of HgCl+, HgCl2, HgCl3- and HgCl42- decreases. Therefore, Jusa is very useful for the development of new medicine because it is possible to predict formation of the body species and species accumulation on mercury known as a toxic element and concentration changes of toxicity and efficiency.city and efficiency.

Mercury- and cadmium-resistant bacteria were isolated from an industrial complex wastewater of Taejon area. All of them were motile, gram negative rods. In the results of physicochemical test and VITEK card test, HMI was identified with Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, CM3 was identified with Comamonas acidovorans, HM2, HM3, CM1, and CM4 were Pseudomonas sp., but HM4 and CM2 were unidentified. They were tested for susceptibility to 14 heavy metals. Mercury-resistant bacteria(HM1, HM2, HM3, and HM4) were sensitive to low concentration(100∼400ppm) of Cd^2+, Co^2+, Zn^2+, and Ni^2+ while cadmium-resistant bacteria(CM1, CM2, CM3, and CM4) showed resistance up to the high concentration(600∼1,200ppm) of these metal ions. As a result of resistance spectrum test of mercury-resistant bacteria, HM1 was broad-spectrum strain, HM2, HM3, and HM4 were narrow-spectrum strains. Transmission electron microscopic examination of cell wall of HM1 culture grown with and without 100ppm of HgCl_2 showed remarkably morphological abnormalities. In the result of atomic absorption spectrometric analysis of cadmium-resistant bacteria grown at 200ppm of CdCl_2 for 6h, all of them accumulated cadmium(14ppm∼57ppm) in cell. In cadmium-resistant bacteria, CM1, CM2, and CM4 were spared from the inhibitory effect of Cd^2+ by the addition of Mn^2+, CM4 were also spared from the inhibitory effect of Cd^2+ by the addition of Mn^2+ as well as Zn^2+.

The inhibitory effects of mercury ions on the growth of barley seedlings were studied and the distribution of metal elements in the organs of treated plants was investigated by using synchrotron radiation induced X-ray emission (SRIXE). Although the treatment of mercury ions caused growth inhibition, the mercury-specific increase in variable fluorescence and the abolishment of energy-dependent quenching in broken barley chloroplasts as shown by Moon et al. (1992) were not observed in the leaves of growth-inhibited seedlings. Instead the treatment of mercury decreased Fmax and Fo values. However, Fmax/Fo ratio and photochemical and nonphotochemical quenching coefficients were not affected significantly. By SRIXE analysis of 10μM mercury chloride treated seedlings, accumulation of mercury in roots was observed after 1 hour of treatment and similar concentration was sustained for 48 hours. Relative contents of mercury was high in roots and underground nodes where seeds were attached, but was very low in leaves. Iron and zinc were also distributed mainly in the lower parts of the seedlings. However after 72 hours of treatment the contents of these metals in roots decreased and their distribution became more uniform, which may lead to death of the plants. These results suggest that the observed inhibitory effects on barley seedlings upto 48 hours after the treatment is not due to direct damages in the photosynthetic apparatus, but due to its accumulation in roots and the consequent retardation of the growth of barley seedlings. The decrease in Fmax and Fo is probably due to the decrease in chlorophyll and protein contents caused by the retardation of growth. The observed slow expansion of primary leaves could be also explained by the retardation of growth, but the fluorescence induction pattern from the leaves did not show characteristic symptoms of leaves under water stress.

To find heavy metal-specific effects on the photosynthetic apparatus of higher plants, we investigated effects of CuCl_2, HgCl_2 and ZnCl_2 on electron transport activity and chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics of chloroplasts isolated from barley seedlings. Effects on some related processes such as germination, growth and photosynthetic pigments of the test plants were also studied. Germination and growth rate were inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner by these metals. Mercury was shown to be the most potent inhibitor of germination, growth and biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments of barley plants. In the inhibition of electron transport activity, quantum yield of PSⅡ, and chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics of chloroplasts isolated from barley seedlings, mercury chloride showed more pronounced effects than other two metals. Contrary to the effects of other two metals, mercury chloride increased variable fluorescence significantly and abolished qE in the fluorescence induction kinetics from broken chloroplasts of barley seedlings. This increase in variable fluorescence is due to the inhibition of the electron transport chain after PSⅡ and the following dark reactions. The inhibition of qE could be attributed to the interruption of pH formation and de-epoxidation o1 violaxathin to zeaxanthin to thylakoids by mercury. This unique effect of mercury on chlorophyll fluorescence induction pattern could be used as a good indicator for testing the presence and/or the concentration of mercury in the samples contaminated with heavy metals