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Orostachys japonicus A. Berger (), known as Wa-song in Korea, has been reported to exert various biological effects, such as anti-tumor, anti-oxidant, and anti-febrile effects. However, the anti-angiogenic effects of O. japonicus extracts remain to be investigated. In the present study, we demonstrated the anti-angiogenic effects of bioconverted O. japonicus extract (BOE) in Ms-1 mouse endothelial cells and compared them with the bioactivities of O. japonicus extract (OE). BOE, but not OE, were found to exert anti-angiogenic effects, including inhibition of cell migration, cell adhesion, tube formation of Ms-1 cells, and blood vessel formation of matrigel plug assay in vivo. Furthermore, protein levels of phosphorylated Src kinase were lower in BOE-treated cells than in OE-treated cells. Treatment with OE or BOE did not influence cell viability during the experimental period. Bioconverted extract of O. japonicus have anti-angiogenic effects in vitro and vivo, but non-bioconverted extract do not. We suggest that these observed anti-angiogenic effects are caused by the changes in the composition of bioactive compounds in the extracts as a result of biological conversion.

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Enzyme fermentation is a type of food processing technique generally used to improve the biological activities of food and herbal medicines. In this study, a Syzygii Flos (clove) extract was fermented using laccase derived from (LTV). The fermented clove extract showed greater neuroprotective effects against glutamate toxicity on HT22 than the non-fermented extract did. HPLC analysis revealed that the eugenol (1) and dehydrodieugenol (2) contents had decreased and increased, respectively, after fermentation. The content of 2 peaked at 1 h after fermentation to 103.50 ± 8.20 mg/g (not detected at zero time), while that of 1 decreased to 79.54 ± 4.77 mg/g (185.41 ± 10.16 mg/g at zero time). Compound 2 demonstrated promising HT22 neuroprotective properties with inhibition of Ca influx, the overproduction of intracellular reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxidation. In addition, LTV showed the best fermentation efficacy compared with laccases derived from and.

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This study was conducted to develop and validate a more reliable total organic carbon (TOC) analytical procedure for water samples containing suspended solids (SS). The effects of the combined ultrasonic and alkaline pretreatment (CULA) on the TOC measurement were studied in water samples containing SS from three origins (algae, sewage particles, and soil) under different analytical conditions (SS concentration, oxidation methods, and sieve size). The applicability of turbidity as a homogeneity index was also evaluated. With CULA, TOC recovery remained high (>80%) for SS concentration ranges up to four times larger than ultrasonic pretreatment alone (UL) due to enhanced particulate organic carbon (POC) solubilization, and did not significantly differ depending on the oxidation methods, at low SS concentrations, or with varying sieve sizes. In particular, the turbidity change rate (i.e., NTU5/NTU0) of the pretreated water sample showed a high correlation with TOC precision (r2 = 0.73, p < 0.01), which suggests that turbidity can be used as an indicator of sample homogeneity. A novel TOC analytical procedure is expected to be useful for more accurate assessments of the impact of particulate pollutants on water quality than current methods, and for the analysis of the carbon cycle, including POCs, in the environment.