Earticle

I investigated 982 medicinal plants by taking photos in Paris plant garden (le Jardin des Plantes de Paris). Among them, the most dominant family name is Asteraceae with 146 species. Other plants are like Poaceae with 89 species, Lamiaceae 63 species, Rosaceae 57 species, Fabaceae 39 species, Caryophyllaceae 38 species. And there are others as well in the following order; Solanaceae, Cyperaceae, Apiaceae, Ranunculaceae, Brassicaceae, Caprifoliaceae and Plantaginaceae.

158 medicinal animal species are mentioned in seven pharmacopoeias of Korea (including North Korea), China (including Taiwan), and Japan. However, there are many cases where the scientific names are written incorrectly. Some of them are misspelled, or did not conform to recommendations of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. In this review, the correct scientific names were presented. When describing animal-based medicinal materials, these correct scientific names should be used.

Araliae Continentalis Radix has been known as a representative herbal medicine distributed with inauthentic adulterants such as the roots of Angelica biserrata and Levisticum officinale. In this study, we identified a new additional commercial adulterant used as Araliae Continentalis Radix. To define the taxonomic origin of the new commercial adulterant, we analyzed ITS2 sequence similarity and identity using NCBI BLAST. The BLAST analysis revealed that the new commercial adulterant belong to the genus Gypsophila but not identical to any plant species. To verify the accurate species, we compared ITS2 sequences of the new commercial adulterant and related taxa including Ar. continentalis, An. biserrata, L. officinale, G. oldhaniana, G. pacifica, and other Gypsophila species and confirmed the new commercial adulterant was the root of G. facifica. These results provide an useful information to prevent the adulteration of Araliae Continentalis Radix and suggest an effective method to verify the origin of commercial herbal medicines.

The use of medicinal plants as a fundamental component of the health care system is one of the oldest and most assorted of the therapeutic systems in the world today. In the last decades, several plants have been confirmed to have chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic phytochemicals for various communicable and non-communicable diseases. More importantly, it is estimated that over 60% of the currently used drugs are from natural sources. Unfortunately, in the last few decades climate change has led to extreme environmental conditions that have negatively impacted the growth and biomass of most medicinal plants. Furthermore, these extreme environmental conditions have not only led to a reduction in some wild medicinal plant species population but also to complete extinction of some of the vital medicinal plant species. To mitigate this problem, basic in vitro propagation geared towards obtaining numerous, quality progeny and subsequent biomass increment of these medicinal plants was conducted during the Laboratory and herbology study at UST-KIOM campus. Different explants - callus, axillary buds, and somatic embryos were used during the in vitro propagation process. The in vitro propagated plants with increased biomass were then acclimatized to enhance physiological modification. This study therefore provides basic information on the in vitro propagation techniques and biomass increment for plants which are under threat of extinction and can be used as a basis upon which future researches can be conducted to enhance development of stable production and supply of highly competitive traditional medicine resources.

Persimmons are cultivated mostly in Asian countries especially in Korea, Japan, and China. One of the most common types of persimmons in Asia is astringent persimmon; a wild species with a characteristic astringent taste until it ripens. Persimmon Calyx is the most common domesticated persimmon species and highly commercialized currently. Persimmon calyx species is briskly used in treating a number of disease conditions including but not limited to cough and bronchial troubles. This study was therefore conducted to investigate the mechanism of interaction between stalk of persimmon and a given yeast strain. The yeast stain separated from the stalk of persimmon was inoculated into four different types of samples; Persimmon, leaves of persimmon tree with leaf blight, naturally dried stalk, and artificially dried stalk. The antimicrobial activity of the yeast strain was also tested on Coprinekkus radians, Fusarium oxysporum, and Rhizopus oryzae microorganisms. The study found that the new yeast strain inhibited the growth of C. radians, F. oxysporum, and R. oryzae which are known to be disease causing organisms to persimmon tree species. This study therefore provides vital knowledge for the effective cultivation of disease free persimmons and animatedly in preventing anthracnose or leaf blight. Our future study will aim at the taxonomic identification of the yeast strain and analysis of its secretion compounds on the culture medium. Further investigations will also explore the antimicrobial potential of the yeast strain and examine its applicability as an insecticides or fungicides in the future.