A hitherto unknown substance was isolated from the commercial sample of Aloe arborescens, which was shown to be the 4',6'-O-ethylidene-aloenin, most likely an artifact caused by hot-air drying procedure for the product preparation.

From the root of Angelica decursiva-albiflora Yook, which has been used as a folk medicine for a sedative, analgesic and expectorant, four free coumarins, e.g., decursidin(I), decursin(II), umbelliferone(III) and nodakenetin(IV), and two coumarin glycosides, e.g., nodakenin(V) and decuroside I(VI) were isolate. The cytotoxicity of nodakenin(V) against L-1210 leukemia cells was less effective than cisplatin, but in the nephrotoxicity against rabbit kidney proximal tubular cell nodakenin(V) showed remarkably less nephrotoxicant than cisplatin.

A new diterpene, agastanol[1] with dehydroagastol[2] was isolated from th root of Agastache rugosa, and their structures were elucidated by chemical and instrumental analysis. Agastanol[1], its derivatives, agastanone[3] and methylagastanol[5], and dehydroagastol[2] showed cytotoxic activites against in vitro human cancer cell lines. Agastanol[1] showed weak antifungal activity against Trichophyton rubrum.

The ether soluble fraction of the methanol extract from the fruits of Crataegus pinnatifida var. psilosa was applied to silica gel column chromatography, eluted step-gradiently with a mixture of dichloromethane and methanol, repeatedly, and five compounds were isolated. These compounds are identified as ursolic acid(I), corosolic acid(II) and euscapic acid (III), ${\beta}-sitosteryl-3-O-{\beta}-_D-glucopyranoside(IV)$ and hyperin(V).

For the investigation of medicinal resources in Aconitum species, the studies were carried out to search the less toxic constituents than Aconitum alkaloid in the aerial part of Aconitum jaluense for. album (Ranunculaceae). From the BuOH fraction of MeOH extract, three flavonoid compounds, hyperoside(1), $kaempferol-3-O-{\beta}-_D-galactopyranoside(2)$, $kaempferol-3-O-{\alpha}-_L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1{\rightarrow}6)-{\beta}-_D-glucopyranoside(3)$ were isolated and identified on the basis of their physico-chemical properties, spectroscopic evidences (UV, IR, NMR and Mass etc.) and comparison with authentics, respectively.

Soybean and beanpaste have been used as ore of the important food in Korea. Beanpaste is made from soybean(seed of Glycine max $M_{ERRIL}$, Leguminosae) by traditional fermentation. It was expected that the secondary metabolites might be formed by the action of some microorganisms or enzymes on the constituents primarily contained in soybean during manufacturing or storage of beanpaste. A systematic investigation on the chemical constituents was carried out. As a result, sterol glycoside named daucosterin, lipo-daucosterin have been isolated from the lipid fraction soybean and their structures elucidated basis of chemical and physicochemical evidences. A ratio of composition of the lipid constituents in soybean and beanpaste were estimated.

An antitumor component, F-D-P, was purified from the hot water extract of the carpophores of Elfvingia applanata by precipitation with ethanol, dialysis, and passage through a column of DEAE-cellulose ion exchange. F-D-P inhibited the growth of Sarcoma 180 in mice showing the tumor inhibition ratio of 88.3% in doses of 20 mg/kg for ten days. Chemical analysis of F-D-P showed that it was composed of polysaccharide(65.3%) and protein(6.5%0, and that the monosaccharides consisting of the polysaccharide was glucose(89.1%) and mannose(10.9%). The immunomodulatory activities of F-D-P were explored by determining its effect on the proliferation of the whole and subpopulations of lymphocytes, and on the generation of natural killer(NK) cell activity in vitro. F-D-P was mitogenic to total lymphocytes and B cells, but not to purified T cells, even in the presence of accessory cells. F-D-P did not increase NK cell activity when added to cultures of resting lymphocytes. From these results, it is clear that F-D-P modulates primarily the humoral immune responeses.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of reaction-precipitate from Coptidis Rhizoma and Glycyrrhizae Radix aqueous mixture(CGP) on the cytotoxicity. The effects of CGP on the growth of tumor cells, Balb/c 3T3 cell, mouse spleen cell and human lymphocyte were compared with those of berberine, glycyrrhizin and berberine glycyrrhizinate(BG), which were estimated by MTT colorimetric assay or cell counting. CGP, berberine and BG inhibited the growth of several tumor cells, such as Hep G2, A549, Raji, MCF-7, HeLa and KHOS-NP. Whereas, glycyrrhizin inhibited the growth of Raji and MCF-7, CGP did not affect on Balb/C 3T3 cells, mouse spleen cells and human lymphocyte at $10^{-6}{\sim}10^{-5}g/ml$. CGP increased the number of leukocyte in mice. This results indicate that CGP have the inhibitory action of the growth of human tumor cells, and the side effect of CGP is less than berberine and BG.

For developing plant anti-inflammatory agents, extracts from Lonicera japonica were obtained and evaluated for their anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities using acute/chronic inflammatory models and writhing tests. It was found that the extracts with a modified extraction method showed higher anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities than those of the extracts based on the ancient literatures.

This study was attempted to investigate the effect of Gardeniae Fructus on GOT, GPT, Al.p, LDH activities and level of total cholesterol in serum of $CCl_{4}$ and $_{D}-galactosamine$ intoxicated rats, and bile excretion. The geniposide and extract caused a remarkabel decrease of GPT activities, level of total cholesterol in serum of $CCl_{4}$ intoxicated rats at EtOH Ex. 300, 500 mg/kg p.o., MeOH Ex. and geniposide 100 mg/kg p.o., and GOT, Al.p, LDH activities were significantly decreased compared with control group. It caused a remarkable decrese of GPT, Al.p, LDH activities in serum of $_{D}-galactosamine$ intoxicated rats, and GOT activities was significantly decreased compared with control group. The geniposide and extract caused a remarkable increase of bile excretion, when administration of EtOH extract 500 mg/kg p.o., MeOH extract 100 mg/kg i.d., MeOH extract 50 mg and geniposide 50 mg/kg i. v. compared with normal-control group.

Antineoplastic activity against human gastric and colon carcinoma cell lines was measured in 49 extracts from 46 plants using MTT (3-[4, 5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl]-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) method. Six extracts from five plants have been reported to have antineoplastic effect. Extracts from remaining 41 plants failed to show significant cytotoxic effect at the concentration of less than $230\;{\mu}g/ml$.

80% Methanol extracts of 44 traditional drugs used for the treatment of liver diseases or tonic effects were screened for anti-hepatotoxic activity by in vitro assay using $CCl_4-induced$ cytotoxicity in primary cultured rat hepatocytes. $CCl_4-induced$ cytotoxicity was evaluated by determination of LDH, GOT or GPT activity in the medium. Rehmaniae Radix Preparata and Gelantina nigra inhibited the release of LDH, GOT or GPT from $CCl_4-treated$ hepatocytes. Gibotii Rhizoma and Eucommiae Cortex showed inhibitory effect on release of LDH from normal hepatocytes as well as $CCl_4-treated$ hepatocytes. Eucommiae Cortex and Lili Bulbus decreased release of GOT and LDH from normal hepatocytes, respectively. Astragali Radix inhibited release of GPT in $CCl_4-treated$ hepatocytes. Phlomidis Radix, Imperatae Rhizoma, Cistanchis Herba, Broussonetiae Fructus, Asparagi Tuber, Trigonellae Semen and Polgonati Rhizoma inhibited release of LDH from $CCl_4-treated$ hepatocytes. Among 44 traditional drugs, most of them released LDH, GOT or GPT at the dose of 1 mg/ml in normal hepatocytes, and Drynariae Rhizoma, Acanthopanacis Cortex, Longanae Arillus, Atratylodis Rhizoma and Ecliptae Herba increased $CCl_4-induced$ cytotoxicity.

A diterpene alkaloid in addition to hypaconitine and mesaconitine was isolated from the tubers of Aconitum napiforme (Ranunculaceae), which is an indigenous plant in Korea. Its structure was elucidated as 8-methoxy 14-benzoyl hypaconine by Physicochemical and spectroscopic data. This compound was isolated from this plant for the first time.

$Yongkaksan^{\circledR}$ is a powdered crude drug which is used to treat cough and recommended it as an expectorant. It is composed of Platycodi Radix (11.7 mg), Senegae Radix(0.5 mg), Armeniacae Semen(0.83 mg) and Glycyrrhizae Radix(8.3 mg). For the identification of individual ingredients in such powdery mixtures, microscopic method may be considered to be efficacious due to requirement of a small amount of specimens. In this paper, effectiveness of this method will be exemplified by the identification of the ingredients in $Yongkaksan^{\circledR}$ which contains 4 powdered crude drug ingredients.