'O Ga Pi Ip' has been used in Korea to cure rheumatism, neuralgia, edema, dematopathy, and impotence. The botanical origin of the crude drug has not been confirmed pharmacognostically. To clarify the botanical origin of 'O Ga Pi Ip', the morphological and anatomical characteristics of the leaves of Acanthopanax species growing in Korea and Japan, A. chi-isanensis Nakai, A. Koreanum Nakai, A. rufinerve Nakai, A. senticosus (Rupr.et Maxim). Harms, A senticosus (Rupr.et Maxim.) for inermis Harms, A. seoulense Nakai, A sessiliflorus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Seem, A. divaricatus Seem, A. sieboldianum Makino were compared. As a result, it was determined that 'O Ga Pi Ip' was the leaf of A. sessiliflorus (Rupr. et Maxim.) Seem, A chiisanensis Nakai, and A. koreanum $Nakai_I$.

Hwan Myeong Hwan (環明丸) is Chinese patent medicine which is used for presbyopia and eye disease. It consists of 23 kind of powdered crude drugs. In powered crude drugs, it is hard to identify each component by chemical analysis or morphological examination. However, the method of identification of powdered crude drugs has not been clearly established. For the identification of individual crude drugs in such powdery mixtures, microscopic method may advantageously be used as it requires only a small amount of specimens. In this study, it is demonstrated that the microscopic method is very effective for the identification of 23 crude drug ingredients in Hwan Myeong Hwan.

The protective effects of the aqueous MeOH extracts of stem and root Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai against oxidative stress were investigated. Anti-oxidant activity of the stem extract of A. koreanum was observed in the DPPH free radical scavenging $(IC_{50}=58.7\;{\mu}g/ml)$ and the SOD test $(IC_{50}=17.52\;{\mu}g/ml)$. According to data analysis of cell survival ratio of normal fibroblasts, the skin irritation by both extracts from A. koreanum was concerned. However, in the skin primary parch test, both extracts obtained Grade I, which means that there was no skin irritation. After induction of oxidative irritation, cell survival ratio of normal fibroblasts was also monitored and it turned out that stress-inducing group with both extracts had more increased cell survival ratio. The cell extension of the stress-inducing group treated with the stem extract was most dominant in morphological study. Based on these results, the stem extract of A. koreanum showed the protective effect against oxidative stress on normal fibroblast.

Yeast based estrogenicity assay is the simplest and useful for the assay and the discovery of novel estrogenic substances in natural specimens, The estrogen receptor(ER) modulation activity of 50% EtOH extracts of 101 traditional medicinal herbs was assessed using a recombinant yeast assay system with both a human estrogen receptor expression plasmid and a receptor plasmid. Among them, 14 species proved to be active. Pureariae Flos (flower of Puerraria thunbergiana BENTH.) had the highest estrogenic relative potency$(7.75{\times}10^{-3})$ $(EC_{50}=9.39\;{\mu}g/ml)$. The $EC_{50}$ value of $17{\beta}-estradiol$ used as the positive control was $0.073\;{\mu}g/ml)$ (Relative Potency=1.00). There results demonstrated that some of the traditional medical herb may be useful in the therapy of estrogen replacement.

Hepatoprotective effects of an aqueous extract prepared from the aerial part of Agrimonia eupatoria L., a species of agrimmony, were investigated in experimental liver-damaged models. To investigate hepatoprotective effects, the agrimmony extract were fed orally to experimental animals. Thereafter a single dose of hepatotoxin, carbon tetrachloride $(CCl_4)$ or D-galac-tosamine was orally administrated. Chronic liver damage was induced by oral administration of $CCl_4$ for 2 weeks (1 time/day). Hepatoprotective effects were monitored by estimating serum AST and ALT levels. The results showed that the agrimmony extract significantly reduced AST and ALT levels compared with those of control group in both acute and chronic animal models. It was concluded that the agrimmony extract have hepatoprotective effects against rat liver injury induced by $CCl_4$ or D-galactosamine.

The quantitative analytical method for the content of dioscin in Dioscorea rhizoma using a high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) system was established for its quality control. After extracting Discorea rhizoma flour with ethanol, dioscin was separated though an ODS column with a flow rate of 1.0ml/min of acetonnitril-methanol-0.01 M phosphate buffer (pH 5.0)(6:3:1, v/v%), and the amount of dioscin was detected at 210nm. Relation time of dioscin in HPLC chromatogram were about $7.45{\pm}0.34\;min$ and calibration curve showed good linearity at concentrations from 0.1 to 2.0 mg/ml of dioscin. When 5 commercial Dioscorea rhizoma flours were analyzed by HPLC, the peak for dioscin was well separated from others in ethanol extract of Dioscorea rhizoma, and the amount of dioscin was in the range from 0.076 to 0.142(w/w)%.

This study investigates the chemical components and biological activities in Picrasma quassioides (D.Don) Benn. extracts for the purpose of developing natural pharmaceutical products. The proximate components in Picrasma quassioides (D.Don) Benn. extracts were 81.56% of carbohydrate, 5.80% of crude fat, 7.75% of crude protein, and 2.07% of crude ash. Calcium was the most predominant mineral and followed phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium, in a decreasing order. The content of the unsaturated fatty acids, such as oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid, was find to be higher than those of saturated fatty acids. Water and methanol extract exhibited antioxidative activity with $IC_{50}$ of $128{\mu}g/ml$ and $144{\mu}g/ml$, respectively, suggesting that the extracts are the major biological component in Picrasma quassioides (D.Don) Benn. extracts. The ${\alpha}-glucosidase$ inhibitory activity showed that methanol and water extract were the high inhibitory activity. Considering these results, water extracts of Picrasma quassioides (D/Don) Benn. showed the possibility that they can be used as a new material for natural pharmaceutical products.

The contents of quercetin glyciside in Saururus chinensis Baill was higher in the 2nd year, 1st year and 3rd year in leaves, and in the 1st year, 3rd year and 2nd year in stems in that orders. Content of lignans in the rhizome was not significantly different cultivated years. The total phenolics, quercetin glycoside and EDA of plant parts were higher in order of flower, leaf and chopping sample. The total phenolics and EDA of stem were much lower than parts and quercetin glycoside was not detected.

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are largely involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. As part of our ongoing project directed toward the discovery of preventive and/or delay agents for diabetic complications from natural sources, 92 Korean traditional herbal medicines have been investigated with an in vitro evaluation system using AGEs inhibitory activity. Of these, 17 herbal medicines exhibited a significant inhibitory activity against AGEs formation. Particularly, 9 herbal medicines, i.e., Cinnamomi Cortex, Artemisiae Argyi Herba, Ammoni Tsao-ko Fructus, Menthae Herba, Amomi Semen, Polygoni Avicularis Herba, Lycopi Herba, Salviae Radix, and Nelumbinis Semen showed more potent inhibitory activity (2-4 fold) than the positive control aminoguanidine.

Using HPLC, we examined quantitative change of cinnamaldehyde and cinnamic acid, caused by time-progress and temperature-change for the Cinnamoni Cortex preparations, Gye Ji Ryung Whan(桂枝茯?丸), Pal Mi Ji Whang Whan(八味地黃丸) and Do Haig Sung Ki Tang(桃核承氣湯). The content of cinnamaldehyde significantly decreased by the increase of temperature. It is suggested that cinnamaldehyde and cinnamic acid are considerably stable when kept frozen.

The vascular relaxant effets of Alpinia officinarum(Zingiberaceae) were evaluated on isolated thoracic aorta from rats. The methanolic extract of rhizome of Alpinia officinarum caused a concentration-dependent relaxation of rat aortic preparations precontracted with $0.3{\mu}M$ phenylephrine, The intensive investigation of the extract by way of activity-guided fractionation led us to yield three kind of active components, galangin(1), kaempferide(2), and kaempferol(3), which were responsible for the vasodilating property of the extract. Stuctures of the isolated active components were established by chemical and spectroscopic means.

Norditerpene alkaloids are the main toxic principles of traditional oriental herb 'chuawu(bu-shi),' which have been used in Chinese materia medica mainly for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. They are biosynthesized via cyclization of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate, incoration of 2-aminoethanol and decarboxylation not via amino acid pathway, and the structural characteristics have tempted several oxidative reactions. In this study various norditerpene alkaloids were subjected to react active manganese dioxide and oxoammonium salt as oxidants. The oxidation was proceeded as dealkylation with aconitine type and dehydrogenations with lycoctonin and heteratisine type.