• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.141-145
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• 1993

Thirty nine kinds of Korean herb drugs have screened for antimicrobial activity of some pathogenic microorganisms. It was revealed that some of hot water extracts from herb drugs showed antimicrobial activity in one or more strain of pathogenic microorganisms. Phellodendron amurense and Coptis chinensis inhibited growth of Staphylococcus aureus. Rubus coreanus showed antibacterial activity in Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Citrus unshill inhibited growth of Escherichia coli and Cornus officinalis showed antibacterial activity in E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Dioscorea battltas and Cinnamomum cassia showed antibacterial activity in Pseodomonas aeruginosa. And also, ScutelJa baicaJerrsis inhibited growth of Candida albicanus. Achyranthes japonica and Glycyrrhiza uralensis showed antifungal activity in Aspergillus niger. It was noteworthy that Glycrrhiza uranensis inhibited growth of Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus niger.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.29-35
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• 2003

A crude polysaccharide fraction (GU-3) from the roots of Glycyrrhiza uralensis (licorice root), a screened herbal plant used in the preparation of herbal kimchi, enhanced Peyer's patch mediated bone marrow cell proliferation and NK cell-mediated tumor cytotoxicity against Yac-1 cells. GU-3 was further purified by DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B yielding fractions designated as GU-3I, and 3IIa∼3IIe. GU-3IIa is mainly composed of arabinose, galactose and galacturonic acid, and showed the highest bone marrow cell proliferation activity. In addition, GU-3IIb had arabinose, galactose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid as the component sugars with a small quantity of protein; GU-3IIb also enhanced activity of NK cell-mediated tumor cytotoxicity. After these fractions were further fractionated via gel filtration on Sepharose CL-6B or Sephacryl S-300, two immunological active polysaccharides, GU-3IIa-2 and 3IIb-1 were purified from the respective fractions. GU-3IIa-2 mostly contained neutral sugars (75%) such as arabinose and galactose (molar ratio; 1.0 : 0.7) in addition to a considerable amount of galacturonic acid (20%), whereas GU-3IIb-1 was composed of arabinose, galactose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid (molar ratio; 0.3 : 0.5 : 0.1 : 1.0). Methylation analysis indicated that GU-3IIa-2 was composed mainly of terminal, 4- or 5-linked and 3,4- or 3,5-branched arabinose, 3-linked, 4-linked and 3,6-branched galactose, and terminal and 4-linked galacturonic acid whereas GU-3IIb-1 contained various glycosidic linkages such as terminal and 4- or 5-linked arabinose, 2,4-branched rhamnose, terminal and 4-linked galactose, and terminal and 4-galacturonic arid. Single radial gel diffusion indicated that only GU-3IIa-2 strongly reacted with β-D-glucosyl-Yariv antigen. These results suggest that bone marrow cell proliferating activity and enhancement of NK cell-mediated tumor cytotoxicity of GU-3 are caused by polysaccharides containing a pectic arabinogalactan (GU-3IIa-2) and pectic polysaccharide (GU-3IIb-1).