The Rheum palmatum L., a traditional medicine in Korea, was screened for their estrogenic activity in a recombinant yeast system with a human estrogen receptor (ER) expression plasmid and a reporter plasmid used in a previous study. The EC50 values of the n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water fractions of the methanolic extract of R. palmatum in the yeast-based estrogenicity assay system were 0.145, 0.093, 0.125, 1.459, 2.853 microg/mL, respectively, with marked estrogenic activity in the dichloromethane fraction. Using an activity-guided fractionation approach, five known anthraquinones, chrysophanol (1), physcion (2), emodin (3), aloe-emodin (4) and rhein (5), were isolated from the dichloromethane fraction. Compound 3 had the highest estrogenic relative potency (RP, 17bestradiol = 1.00) (6.3 x 10(-2)), followed by compound 4 (3.8 x 10(-3)), compound 5 (2.6 x 10(-4)), a compound 1 (2.1 x 10(-4)). Also, compound 3 and fraction 3 (which contained compound 3) of the dichloromethane fraction of R. palmatum showed strong cytotoxicity in both ER-positive (MCF-7) and-negative (MDA-MB-231) breast cancer cell lines.

This study investigated the effect of whole-body vibration on muscle function and muscular reaction in the knee joint. We recruited thirty healthy subjects and divided them into a training group, who experienced whole-body vibration, and a control group, who did not. The training group performed whole-body vibration exercises for 30 min per day, 3 days a week, for 8 weeks. We measured knee joint torque to estimate muscle strength and reaction, using BIODEX System 3. Knee joint peak torque and total work performed increased significantly in the training group, and muscle acceleration time decreased. These results suggest that stimulation by whole-body vibration can improve muscle strength and reaction by improving muscle tone and increasing blood temperature and flow speed in muscular fiber. Our results also indicate that 4 weeks of exercise with whole-body vibration is required to improve the reaction response, and six weeks to improve strength.

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