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4-(Hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanols were conveniently synthesized from the corresponding aryl aldehydes and dimethyl 2-oxopropylphophonate in moderate yields. The Physiological activities of these compounds were assessed on the basis of DPPH free radical scavenging assay and tyrosinase inhibition activity assay. When the tyrosinase activity inhibition rate of these compounds using L-DOPA as a substrate was compared with arbutin as reference compound, the activity of 4-(4-hydroxypheny)-2-butanol (rhododenol), 4-(4-hydroxy-3- methoxyphenyl)-2-butanol, 4-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-2-butanol, 4-(2,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-2-butanol, and 4-(3,5-dihydroxyphenyl)-2-butanol were superior to that of arbutin.

[SUMMARY] Bio-ethanol production from carbohydrates, crops containing starch, and cellulosic forest thinning are receiving increasing attention as renewable alternative energies to counteract the exhaustion of fossil fuels and to improve the environment against global warming. This research has examined the utilization of Satsuma mandarin (citrus unshiu) peels, obtained via a normal disposal process in Japan, to produce bio-ethanol, including identifying the most suitable diastatic fermenting yeast. As a result, we found that a combination of Aspergillus niger as an enzyme for saccharification and standard bread yeast for alcohol conversion during the fermentation produced ethanol with a good inversion rate. Furthermore, the experiment demonstrated that, as a raw material, the peels of Satsuma mandarin (citrus unshiu) require a dryness of over 99％ to function in an appropriate reaction scheme. In addition, combustion experiments that ethanol mixed with varying amounts of kerosene petroleum demonstrated the possibility of using the ethanol obtained as a blended fuel.

[SUMMARY] For ensuring useful materials including pharmaceutical compounds, it is important to extract and separate the underlying leading compounds from natural products such as plants, and to characterize their structure and pharmacological activity. Kaempferol (1), quercetin (2), quercitrin (3), rutin (4), hesperetin (5), and hesperidin (6) used in this study were flavonoids having a phenylchroman skeleton as the basic structure. Antioxidant ability, skin-whitening effect, and histamine-release suppressing effect were examined as their new physiological activities in this study. As a result, in DPPH radical scavenging effect test, which evaluates activity of antioxidant ability, high scavenging effect (90-96％) was observed in (1), (2), and (4). In skin-whitening effect test, it was clarified that (1) and (2) exert higher tyrosinase inhibition activity (42-60) than that of commercially available arbutin (7.3). In toxicity test using human alveolar epithelial cells (in vitro), meanwhile, no difference from control was observe in (3), (4), (5), and (6) at 100 μM concentration, and it was reasoned that there are no considerable toxicity.

[SUMMARY] Persimmon peels (Diospyros Kaki THUNB.) are discarded during the production of dried fruit. The 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (8) which is component of persimmon peel had high antioxidant activity on the DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay and SOD (superoxide dismutase) assay. And (8) had higher tyrosinase inhibiting activity than that of arbutin using both L-tyrosine and L-DOPA as substrates. In addition, tyrosinase inhibitting activity of synthesized 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol glycoside (12a) was studied. (12a) had tyrosinase inhibiting activity, suggesting that (12a) has possibilities for ingredient of cosmetics that are possessed of whitening effect. Moreover, for the creation of high value added product, we composed glycoside of (8) and cell toxicity assay with homosapiens origin alveolus epithelium cell strain A549 was carried on toward for these two kinds of compounds. Under high density condition (100 μg/mL), both of the compounds were not found to present toxic liability. Furthermore, we discovered that extracted hexane of dried persimmon include antibacterial activity (B. subtilis NBRC 3972, S. aureus NBRC13276 and E. coli NBRC3972) and ascertained methyl tridecanoate, 9-methyl hexadecenoate, 9-methyl octadecenoate, methyl tetradecanoate as the main components. Consequently we examined these components as the factor of antiseptic effect.

[Abstract] In this examination, antioxidant activities and whitening effects of yuzu(Citrus junos Sieb.ex Tanaka ) and lime(Citrus aurantifolia S.) essencial oils which are widely used in food flavors were studied. As a result, we found out that 1％ to 2％ concentration yuzu essencial oil contains equal antioxidant activity to □-tocopherol which is a substance commercially used as antioxidant. Also, from the result of tyrosinase activity inhibition test, an evaluation test on whitening effects, we found out that 1％ to 2％ concentration lime essencial oil contains higher inhibiting activation than arbutin which is a substance highly used in commercial cosmetics.

[Summary]Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) plays an important role in systemic local inflammatory and immune responses. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)are major proinflammatory cytokines and is mainly products by monocytes and macrophages, and inducing the synthesis and release of many inflammatory mediators. It is involved in immune regulation, autoimmune diseases, and inflammation. Moreover, MIF is a counter regulator against corticosteroids. We previously assay that synthetic surfactant to inhibition of releases of proinflammatroy cytokines and then found the important characterization of releases of MIF. In this study, we tested to proinflammatory cytokines suppression of volatile compound to macrophage cells inducing MIF. As a result, carvone, eucarvone, karahanaenone, hinokitiol and a-camphorenaldhyde were inhibition to release of TNF-α from MIF-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells at concentration of 10μg/ml, respectively. Moreover, these compounds did not inhibit the release of TNF-α in THP-1 cells inducing LPS at tested concentrations. This result suggested that a specific pharmacological action should be involved in the inhibitory activity of these compounds. It seems that the compounds are direct acting MIF signal in cell.

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