In the course of screening for anti-dementia agents from natural products, two beta-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors were isolated from the husk of pomegranate (Punica granatum) by activity-guided purification. They were identified as ellagic acid and punicalagin with IC50 values of 3.9 x10(-6) and 4.1x10(-7) M and Ki values of 2.4x10(-5) and 5.9x10(-7) M, respectively. The compounds were non-competitive inhibitors with a substrate in the Dixon plot. Ellagic acid and punicalagin were less inhibitory to alpha-secretase (TACE) and other serine proteases such as chymotrypsin, trypsin, and elastase, thus indicating that they were relatively specific inhibitors of BACE1.

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This study was done in order to investigate the bioconversion of ginsenoside, as well as the quality characteristics of fermented ginseng, by using lactic acid bacteria. Quality characteristics such as the thin layer chromatography(TLC) pattern, ginsenosides, total phenolic content, electron donating ability, and total sugar of fermenting ginseng and red ginseng were analyzed. The ginsenoside Rg2r, Rh2s and Rh2r of the fermented ginseng and red ginseng for 65 hours at a temperature of 37℃ were not detected. The ginsenoside Rg1 and Re contents have decreased, while the Rh1, Rg2s, Rd, Rg3r, and Rg3s have increased due to fermentation. The ginsenoside Rg3 of the fermented red ginseng has increased and the contents were 114.83∼131.68 μg/mL (control 104.56 μg/mL). The total phenolic content and electron donating ability of the red ginseng have totally decreased after 7 days of fermentation. The total phenolic contents of the fermented ginseng and red ginseng with different lactic acid bacteria did not show any tendency as different strains. The electron donating ability of the fermented ginseng has increased; however, the electron donating ability of the red ginseng has decreased. The total sugars of the fermented ginseng and red ginseng with different lactic acid bacteria have also decreased.

An orange-pigmented bacterium, designated strain 13-9-B8 T , was isolated from a seawater sample collected at Marado, Jeju Island, South Korea. The novel strain was Gram-stainingnegative, non-motile, non-gliding, rod-shaped and aerobic. A phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the strain clustered with members of the genus Lewinella of the family Saprospiraceae in the phylum Bacteroidetes and was most closely related to the species Lewinella marina (95.6 % similarity to the type strain). Strain 13-9-B8 T grew optimally at 30 8C, pH 7.0 and with 2 % (w/v) NaCl. Strain 13-9-B8 T contained MK-7 as the predominant menquinone and summed feature 3, iso-C 15 : 0 and iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH as the major fatty acids. The polar lipids detected in strain 13-9-B8 T were phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified aminolipid, one unidentified phospholipid and eight unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content of strain 13-9-B8 T was 59.1 mol%. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data presented, strain 13-9-B8 T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Lewinella, for which the name Lewinella xylanilytica sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is 13-9-B8 T (5DSM 29526 T 5KCTC 32663 T). 3These authors contributed equally to this study. The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain 13-9-B8 T is KJ573521. Two supplementary figures are available with the online Supplementary Material.

The physicochemical quality characteristics of the domestic and imported commercial dried persimmons were investigated. The moisture content of dried persimmon was approximately 22.78~61.64%, while the moisture contents of the Chinese dried persimmon were 22.78 and 28.20%, respectively, and were lower than the domestic dried persimmon The sulfur dioxide content of the 9 kinds of commercial dried persimmon was lower than 10 mg/kg, but not detected.

Objective: To study the anti-inflammatory properties of OJ.Context: Ojayeonjonghwan (OJ) is a traditional Korean prescription, which has been widely used for the treatment of prostatitis. However, no scientific study has been performed of the anti-inflammatory effects of OJ.Materials and methods: Peritoneal macrophages were isolated 3–4 days after injecting a C57BL/6J mouse with thioglycollate. They were then treated with OJ water extract (0.01, 0.1, and 1 mg/mL) for 1 h and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for different times. Nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, and proinflammatory cytokine levels were determined by NO assay, Western blotting, RT-PCR and ELISA.Results: NO generation and iNOS induction were increased in the LPS-activated mouse peritoneal macrophages. However, NO generation and iNOS induction by LPS were suppressed by treatment with OJ for the first time. The IC50 value of OJ with respect to NO production was 0.09 mg/mL. OJ did not influence LPS-stimulated COX-2 induction, but did significantly decrease LPS-stimulated secretions and mRNA expressions of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-1β. Inhibition rates of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β at an OJ concentration of 1 mg/mL were 77%, 88%, and 50%, respectively. OJ also suppressed the LPS-induced nuclear translocation of NF-κB. High-performance liquid chromatography showed schizandrin and gomisin A are major components of OJ.Conclusions: OJ reduces inflammatory response, and this probably explains its positive impact on the prostatitis associated inflammation.

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