• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.138-149
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• 2002

Plant cell culture provides a viable alternative over whole plant cultivation for the production of secondary metabolites. In order to successfully cultivate the plant cells at large scale, several engineering parameters such as, cell aggregation, mixing, aeration, and shear sensitivity are taken into account for selection of a suitable bioreactor. The media ingredients, their concentrations and the environmental factors are optimized for maximal synthesis of a desired metabolite. Increased productivity in a bioreactor can be achieved by selection of a proper cultivation strategy (batch, fed-batch, two-stage etc.), feeding of metabolic precursors and extraction of intracellular metabolites. Proper understanding and rigorous analysis of these parameters would pave the way towards the successful commercialization of plant cell bioprocesses.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2021.04a
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• pp.10-10
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• 2021

Natural products have been used as drugs and cosmetics due to their bioactivity and their biochemical diversity. Natural products usually refer to secondary metabolites produced by various living organisms including marine animals, insects, microbes, amphibians, and plants. These secondary metabolites, which usually have molecular weights less than 2,000 amu, are unnecessary for survival, development, growth, and reproduction but play major roles in plant defense systems against other species. These secondary metabolites such as lignans, flavonoids, monoterpenes, and phenylethanoid glycosides showed various biological activities like anti-oxidant behavior, anti-cancer properties, neuroprotective properties, and so forth. Thus, isolation and elucidation of secondary metabolites from living organisms is of great significance to human life.

• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1995.06a
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• pp.40-56
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• 1995

During the past two decades, China has seen her great progress in plant biotechnology. Since the Chinese market of herb medicine is huge, while the plant resources are shrinking, particular emphasis has been placed in plant tissue and cell cultures of medicinal plants, this includes fast propagation, protoplast isolation and regeneration, cell suspension cultures and large scale fermentation. To optimize culture conditions for producing secondary compounds in vitro, various media, additives and elicitors have been tested. Successful examples of large scale culture for the secondary metabolite biosynthesis are quite limited : Lithospermum ery throrhizon and Arnebia euchroma for shikonin derivatives, Panax ginseng, P. notoginseng, P. quinquefolium for saponins, and a few other medicinal plants. Recent development of genetic transformation systems of plant cells offered a new approach to in vitro production of secondary compounds. Hairy root induction and cultures, by using Ri-plasmid, have been reported from a number of medicinal plant species, such as Artemisia annua that produces little artemisinin in normal cultured cells, and from Glycyrrhiza uralensis. In the coming five years, Chinese scientists will continue their work on large scale cell cultures of a few of selected plant species, including Taxus spp. and A. annua, for the production of secondary metabolites with medicinal interests, one or two groups of scientists will be engaged in molecular cloning of the key enzymes in plant secondary metabolism.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.10-27
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• 2020

Endophytes are defined as microorganisms that spend part of lifetime interior of plant tissues without causing negative effects. They have been used for agricultural purpose, biofuel production, bioremediation, medication, etc. In particular, endophytes have been emerged as a good source for bioactive secondary metabolites. A large number of secondary metabolites are currently being reported. In this report, we focus on the secondary metabolites that were originated from endophytic fungi inhabiting medicinal plants. They were classified into several groups such as nitrogenous compounds, steroids, sulfide-containing metabolites, terpenoids, polyketides, and miscellaneous for discussion of chemical structures and biological activities.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.173-178
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• 2017

Objectives: Medicinal plants are vital sources of bioactive compounds that are useful for the treatment of patients with snake bites or are indirectly applicable for boosting the effects of conventional serum therapy. These plants are being used traditionally by local healers and tribes for the treatment of patients with snake bites and therefore can be used as an alternative against snake envenomation. Scientifically, using the secondary metabolites of plants to neutralize venom enzymes has an extra benefit of being based on traditional knowledge; also, the use of such metabolites for the treatment of patients with snake bites is cheaper and the treatment can be started sooner. Methods: All the available information on various secondary metabolites exhibiting venom neutralizing ability were collected via electronic search (using Google books, Pubmed, SciFinder, Scirus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science) and articles of peer-reviewed journals. Results:Recent interest in different plant has focused on isolating and identifying of different phytoconstituents that exhibit Phospholipase A2 activity and other venom enzyme neutralizing ability. In this support convincing evidence in experimental animal models are available. Conclusion: Secondary metabolites are naturally present, have no side effect, are stable for a long time, can be easily stored, and can neutralize a wide range of snake enzymes, such as phospholipase A2, hyaluronidase, protease, L-amino acid oxidase, 5'nucleotidase, etc. The current review presents a compilation of important plant secondary metabolites that are effective against snake venom due to enzyme neutralization.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.66
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• pp.338-344
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• 2023

Curcuma longa is a plant belonging to the genus Curcuma and is distributed across various Asian regions. This plant is widely known for its rhizomes, which possess a variety of pharmacological properties. However, although the leaves and stems of this plant also contain several health-promoting secondary metabolites, very few studies have characterized these compounds. Therefore, our study sought to quantify the secondary metabolites from the leaves and stems of Curcuma longa L. (LSCL) using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Our LC-ESI-MS analyses detected twenty-one phenolic compounds in the LSCL, among which fifteen compounds were detected via HPLC analysis. Four compounds, namely vanillic acid (0.129 mg/g), p-coumaric acid (0.431 mg/g), 4-methylcatechol (0.199 mg/g), and afzelin (0.074 mg/g) were then quantified. These findings suggest that LSCL is rich in secondary metabolites and holds potential as a valuable resource for the development of functional and nutritional supplements in the future.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.199-208
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• 2022

Objectives: In recent decades, the trend for treating diabetes mellitus (DM) has shifted toward alternative medicines that are obtained from plant sources. Existing literature suggests that phenolic compounds derived from plants possess promising health-promoting properties. This study aimed to discuss the role of plant-derived phenolic compounds in the effective treatment and management of diabetes. Methods: Information about plant secondary metabolites, phenolic compounds, and their role in the treatment and management of diabetes was collected from different databases, such as Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Keywords like secondary metabolites, phenolic compounds, simple phenol, flavonoids, lignans, stilbenes, and diabetes were searched. Research and review articles with relevant information were included in the study. Results: Anti-diabetic studies of the four major classes of phenolic compounds were included in this review. The plant-derived phenolic compounds were reported to have potent anti-diabetic activities. However, each class of phenolic compounds was found to behave differently according to various mechanisms. Conclusion: The obtained results suggest that phenolic compounds derived from natural sources display promising anti-diabetic activities. Based on the available information, it can be concluded that phenolic compounds obtained from various natural sources play key roles in the treatment and management of diabetes.

• 한국균학회소식:학술대회논문집
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.49-49
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• 2018

A variety of bioactive secondary metabolites have been reported from plant-associated microorganisms. Halophytes, plants that can only grow in hypersaline area, were reported to host beneficial microorganisms such as plant growth-promoting endophytes. The microorganisms have been reported to show notable mutualistic symbiosis with halophytes to help them survive in high saline condition. Finding out bioactive secondary metabolites as well as elucidation of relationship(s) between microbes and the host halophyte has been paid attention, because of their functional diversity. Novel microbes often have associated with novel natural products. In an effort to investigate natural compounds with interesting structures from fungi, we selected plants from a distinct environmental setting which could be a promising source. Several fungi were isolated from halophyte or medicinal plants. Some strains of the fungi were cultivated on a large scale and extracted with ethyl acetate, which were subjected to a series of chromatographic methods, leading to the isolation of tens of compounds. The isolated compounds were identified by analysis of spectroscopic methods such as 1D-, 2D-NMR, and MS. Details of isolation, structure determination, and biological activities will be discussed.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-112
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• 2008

Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) are important sources for plant secondary metabolites, which are important for human healthcare. Improvement of the yield and quality of these natural plant products through conventional breeding is still a challenge. However, recent advances in plant genomics research has generated knowledge leading to a better understanding of the complex genetics and biochemistry involved in biosynthesis of these plant secondary metabolites. This genomics research also concerned identification and isolation of genes involved in different steps of a number of metabolic pathways. Progress has also been made in the development of functional genomics resources (EST databases and micro-arrays) in several medicinal plant species, which offer new opportunities for improvement of genotypes using perfect markers or genetic transformation. This review article presents an overview of the recent developments and future possibilities in genetics and genomics of MAP species including use of transgenic approach for their improvement.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2018.10a
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• pp.23-23
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• 2018

Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, located on tropical and subtropical climate zones with abundant biological resources. According to the latest version of the Flora of Taiwan, there are 4339 species of vascular plants including 1054 endemic species. First, Taiwania (Taiwania cryptomerioides), named after its native island of Taiwan, have been isolated more than 500 secondary metabolites, including lignans, terpenoids, steroids, and flavonoids. Several of the metabolites are reported to have antibacterial, antifungal, antimite, antitermite and antitumor activities. In order to investigate plant secondary metabolic diversity toward industrial applications, we established deep transcriptome resources for non-model plants and fungi to produce terpenoid metabolites of economic importance. Second, many plants of Lauraceae have been utilized in folk medicine for their exciting bioactivities. The twigs and leaves from 27 tree species of Lauraceae grown in Taiwan were performed to evaluate potential bioactivity. The leaves of Cinnamomum osmophloeum are traditionally used in folk medicines, and many biological activities have been identified, such as antibacterial, antifungal, antitermite, antidiabetic, antihyperuricemia, antiinflammatory, and antioxidant activities. However, C. osmophloeum has nine chemotypes with various secondary metabolite profiles. In order to efficiently produce active compounds, we established the genetic markers to identify the chemotype plants. Finally, Cinnamomum kanehirae is the host of the medicinal mushroom Antrodia cinnamomea. Several in vivo and in vitro studies indicated that A. cinnamomea possesses a diverse range of biological activities. Because of the potential pharmacological application, we established the transformation system to enhance the triterpenoid contents production.