Search

Background: Immature fruit of Rubus coreanus, also known as "Bokbunja" in Korea, have been used as traditional medicinal plant in East-Asia. Although several studies have been conducted to the fruit composition of R. coreanus, research on the antioxidant composition of branch and leaves are limited. Objectives: We aimed to analyze the contents of five antioxidants in leaves and branches of R. coreanus using different extraction method. Materials and Methods: R. coreanus were cultivated at the research farm of the Gyeongsang National University. R. coreanus plants were harvested in May and July, and leaf and branch extracts were prepared using the ultrasonic bath and reflux extraction methods and analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: The ultrasonic bath extraction method extracted 7.1 and 1.5 mg/100 g gallic acid from leaves and branches, respectively, whereas the reflux extraction method yielded 12.4 and 16.5 mg/100 g, respectively. Thus, reflux extraction was superior to ultrasonic bath for both leaf and branch parts. In the extracts prepared by reflux extraction, contents of all five compounds were higher in leaves than in branches. In leaves extracted with the reflux extraction method, ellagic acid was the most abundant, followed by quercetin-3-O-glucoside (24.7 mg/100 g), gallic acid (12.4 mg/100 g), quercetin (7.3 mg/100 g), and kaempferol (1.5 mg/100 g). Contents of all compounds were higher in May (1.1 mg/g) than in July (0.7 mg/g). Conclusion: R. coreanus plant was identified to show antioxidant activity and to present abundantly five antioxidants not only in fruit but also in leaves and branches in May. Specially, quercetin was three-fold higher in leaves than in fruit juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic fertilizers were applied in four different forms: mixed organic matter, fermentation cake, bacterial culture, and rice husks, excluding conventional chemical fertilizer and non-treatment used as control. The results showed that soil pH was acidified after fermentation cake and chemical fertilizer treatment. Specifically, chemical fertilizer treatment showed higher phosphoric-acid content than other treatments, while total N content was higher in fermentation cake, mixed organic matter and chemical fertilizer. Growth of Codonopsis lanceolata showed superior tendency in the treatment of mixed organic matter and fermentation cake. Lancemacides, the major saponin of C. lanceolata, could be identified as foetidissimoside A, lancemaside A, lancemaside B, and lancemaside D. However, among them, quantitative analysis could not be conducted on foetidissimoside A due to its very low content, and lancemaside A was the most abundant saponin in the root from all the treatments. The content of lancemaisde A according to organic fertilizer application showed the highest value of 0.12 mg g-1 in the treatment of mixed organic matter, followed by the fermentation cake, bacterial culture, non-treatment, rice husks and chemical fertilizer, in that order. The content of lancemaside B and D was very low compared to lancemaside A, and there was no difference among treatments. Therefore, it was verified that the growth of C. lanceolata was superior in application of mixed organic matter and fermentation cake, and the major saponin, lancemaside A, was also increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]