Three fungi newly intercepted from importing plants were identified in 2004. They were Ascochyta chrysanthemi on Lactuca sativa from China, A. spinaciicola on Spinacia oleracea from Denmark, and Leptosphaerulina australis on Brassica oleracea var. capitata from China. The characters of these fungi were described and illustrated.
Brassica ; China ; Denmark ; Fungi* ; Korea* ; Lettuce ; Spinacia oleracea

OBJECTIVETo study the stomach role in exogenous oxalate absorption.

METHODSThe kinetic variation of urinary oxalate excretion (mg/min) in 10 healthy adults and 8 patients who underwent total gastrectomy was investigated before and after an oral spinach oxalate load. The bioavailability of the oxalate load in the healthy adults was calculated and compared with that in the patients.

RESULTSThe oxalate content in the oral spinach load was 2567-2670 mg. The urinary oxalate excretion (mg/min) in the 10 healthy adults increased significantly 20 minutes after loading (this increase was compared against their basic oxalate excretion level of 0.0331 +/- 0.0203). Further observations after loading include: a first peak of oxalate excretion 40 minutes after loading; an oxalate excretion level double that of the basic level after 60 minutes (0.0732 +/- 0.0294) and a second peak appearing at 3 hours (P < 0.01). A "first peak" (0.063% +/- 0.062%) was not in any of the patients who underwent a total gastrectomy. Furthermore, a bioavailability of oxalate, which was 50% lower than that in the healthy subjects, appeared 60 minutes after loading (0.098% +/- 0.071%, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSThe stomach is a powerful oxalate absorption organ under normal physiological conditions. Further investigation on the relationship between stomach dysfunction and urinary calcium oxalate formation is needed.

Absorption ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Oxalates ; pharmacokinetics ; Spinacia oleracea ; metabolism ; Stomach ; metabolism

To ensure the microbiological safety of food items prepared after cooking process, this study was aimed to identify the hazards related with cooked foods donated to foodbanks through quantitative microbial analysis. Five foodbanks located in Incheon and Gyeonggi area among government-dominant foodbanks were surveyed from February to June, 2007. Manager, recipient, donator, type and quantity of donated food, and facility and equipment were examined for the general characteristics of foodbank. The time and temperature of food and environment were measured at steps from after-production to before-distribution, and the microbial analysis was performed mainly with indicator organism and major pathogens. The amount of cooked foods donated to each foodbank was about 20 to 30 servings and consisted of 80% of total donated foods. Only three foodbanks had separate offices for foodbank operation and four institutions had at least one temperature-controlled vehicle. The flow of donated foods was gone through the steps; production, meal service and holding at donator, collection by foodbank, transport (or holding after transport) and distribution to recipients. It took about 3.8 to 6.5 hours at room temperature from after-production to beforedistribution. Only aerobic plate counts (APC) and coliforms were found in microbial analysis. The APC after production were relatively high in 8.2 x 10(5), 7.4 x 10(5), 6.9 x 10(5) and 4.2 x 10(5) CFU/g while 2.8 x 10(6), 9.4 x 10(5), 1.0 x 10(6) and 5.4 x 10(5) CFU/g before distribution in mixed Pimpinella brachycarpa, mixed chard, mixed amaranth and mixed spinach, respectively. The levels of coliforms in mixed chard and mixed spinach were complied with the standards of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Management. The level of APC in boiled pork was increased from < 1.0 x 10 CFU/g to 4.0 x 10(2) CFU/g. One of delivery vessels was shown 6.2 x 10(3)CFU/100 cm2 in APC, which was over the standards for environment. One of serving tables also showed the high level of 1.2 x 10(3) CFU/100 cm2 in APC and 6.6 x 10(2) CFU/100 cm2 in coliforms. These results suggest the sanitary management of holding at donator and the time-temperature control are key factors to ensure the safety of cooked foods donated to foodbank.
Beta vulgaris ; Cooking ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Incheon ; Meals ; Pimpinella ; Spinacia oleracea

China ; Crystallography, X-Ray ; Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes ; chemistry ; metabolism ; Photosynthesis ; Spinacia oleracea ; chemistry ; metabolism

This study was performed to weigh the average meal portion sizes served for preschoolers by kindergarten teacher. The subjects were 53 teachers from 8 kindergartens, which are random sampled by meal service number. Using the weighing method assessed the meal portion sizes of food items at lunch. The data was complied by performing chi-square-test using SPSS WIN 11.0. The result was as followed: 98.0% of teacher agreed with the meal service because of 'better food habit and table etiquette' ( 68.0%) , 'health promotion with balanced diet' ( 22.0%) , 'owing to extending school time' ( 6.0%) and 'demand of parents' ( 2.0%) . Preschooler eat lunch at class ( 84.9%) and meal serving size was decided by teacher ( 79.2%) . Teachers thought that they know very well about portion size 3.8%, 96.2% of teacher thought that they don't know much about portion size. Portion size were not significantly different by food tray types but there was much different ( almost 100%) compared with minimum and maximum within dishes. Most average portion size was not met dietary reference intake except cooked rice, soups and fish cutlet. Working experience effected on portion size. More served, more working experienced of teacher. For example Bulgogi was served 26.8 g by teacher who has over 6 years working experience compared with 2 - 6 years ( 20.4 g) and less than 2 years ( 17.1 g)(p < 0.01) . Spinach portion size was significantly different by teacher's working experience ( p < 0.01) . Portion size were not significantly different by preschooler's age. The reference of dietary for preschooler was different by age, but teachers served meal by their exper-ience. According to the results of this study, it is necessary to educate meal portion size for kindergarten teacher who take charge in meal serving. To provide guidance to teacher about reasonable portion sizes for preschoolers, teacher need to take nutrition education about meal service and child nutrition in college. This study would be useful to those who plan meals for preschoolers and to researchers studying dietary intakes of preschooler.
Child ; Education ; Food Habits ; Humans ; Lunch ; Meals* ; Portion Size* ; Recommended Dietary Allowances ; Serving Size ; Spinacia oleracea

BACKGROUND: It is often stated that ingestion of food rich in histamine can result in absorption of sufficient histamine to provoke signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction. To date, No study has systemically examined in Korea. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the histamine content of 29 common dishes. METHODS: The histamine content of food was measured using high performance liquid chromatography and post column derivation system with fluorescence detector. RESULTS: Sausages (3,572 mg/kg) showed the highest histamine level and fish such as tuna (2,927 mg/kg) and mackerel (2,467 mg/kg) also showed high levels of histamine. From the fruit and vegetable group, spinach (1,358 mg/kg) showed the highest level, containing a moderate amount of histamine. From the dairy product group, cheese (533 mg/kg) showed a moderate amount of histamine. From the group containing caffeine green tea (878 mg/kg) showed a slightly high histamine level. The alcohol group showed relatively low levels of histamine. CONCLUSION: High histamine concentrations were found in fish, meat and processed meat, spinach, and green tea, etc. These results are in agreement with those of previous studies of histamine content of food in other countries. This is the first work that has evaluated histamine content in food in Korea. Further studies including other Korean food will be required.
Absorption ; Caffeine ; Cheese ; Chromatography, Liquid ; Dairy Products ; Eating ; Fluorescence ; Fruit ; Histamine* ; Hypersensitivity ; Korea* ; Meat ; Perciformes ; Spinacia oleracea ; Tea ; Tuna ; Vegetables

BACKGROUND/OBJECTS: When the functions involved in the ingestion of food occurs failure, not only loss of enjoyment of eating, it will be faced with protein-energy malnutrition. Dysmasesis and difficulty of swallowing occurs in various diseases, but it may be a major cause of aging, and elderly people with authoring and dysmasesis and difficulty of swallowing in the aging society is expected to increase rapidly. SUBJECTS/METHODS: In this study, we carried out a survey targeting nutritionists who work in elderly care facilities, and examined characteristics of offering of foods for elderly and the degree of demand of development of easily chewable and swallowable foods for the elderly who can crush foods and take that by their own tongues, and sometimes have difficulty in drinking water and tea. RESULTS: In elderly care facilities, it was found to provide a finely chopped food or ground food that was ground with water in a blender for elderly with dysmasesis. Elderly satisfaction of provided foods is appeared overall low. Results of investigating the applicability of foods for elderly and the reflection will of menus, were showed the highest response rate in a gelification method in molecular gastronomic science technics, and results of investigating the frequent food of the elderly; representative menu of beef, pork, white fish, anchovies and spinach, were showed Korean barbecue beef, hot pepper paste stir fried pork, pan fried white fish, stir fried anchovy, seasoned spinach were the highest offer frequency. CONCLUSIONS: This study will provide the fundamentals of the development of easily chewable and swallowable foods, gelification, for the elderly. The study will also illustrate that, in the elderly, food undergone gelification will reduce the risk of swallowing down to the wrong pipe and improve overall food preference.
Aged* ; Aging ; Deglutition ; Drinking Water ; Eating ; Food Preferences ; Humans ; Nutritionists ; Protein-Energy Malnutrition ; Seasons ; Spinacia oleracea ; Tea ; Tongue ; Water

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables reduce risk of adverse cardiovascular events. However, the constituents responsible for this effect have not been well established. Lately, the attention has been brought to vegetables with high nitrate content with evidence that this might represent a source of vasoprotective nitric oxide. We hypothesized that short-term consumption of spinach, a vegetable having high dietary nitrate content, can affect the arterial waveform indicative of arterial stiffness, as well as central and peripheral blood pressure (BP). Using a placebo-controlled, crossover design, 27 healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either a high-nitrate (spinach; 845 mg nitrate/day) or low-nitrate soup (asparagus; 0.6 mg nitrate/day) for 7 days with a 1-week washout period. On days 1 and 7, profiles of augmentation index, central, and brachial BP were obtained over 180 min post-consumption in 4 fasted visits. A postprandial reduction in augmentation index was observed at 180 min on high-nitrate compared to low-nitrate intervention (-6.54 +/- 9.7% vs. -0.82 +/- 8.0%, p = 0.01) on Day 1, and from baseline on Day 7 (-6.93 +/- 8.7%, p < 0.001; high vs. low: -2.28 +/- 12.5%, p = 0.35), suggesting that the nitrate intervention is not associated with the development of tolerance for at least 7 days of continued supplementation. High vs. low-nitrate intervention also reduced central systolic (-3.39 +/- 5.6 mmHg, p = 0.004) and diastolic BP (-2.60 +/- 5.8 mmHg, p = 0.028) and brachial systolic BP (-3.48 +/- 7.4 mmHg, p = 0.022) at 180 min following 7-day supplementation only. These findings suggest that dietary nitrate from spinach may contribute to beneficial hemodynamic effects of vegetable-rich diets and highlights the potential of developing a targeted dietary approach in the management of elevated BP.
Adult* ; Blood Pressure ; Cross-Over Studies ; Diet ; Fruit ; Hemodynamics* ; Humans ; Nitric Oxide ; Spinacia oleracea* ; Vascular Stiffness* ; Vegetables

A reliable nutrient database is a prerequisite for accurate calculation of dietary intakes. The folate database currently available in Korea, however, is not reliable because the values were obtained from published data in other countries using ineffective methods to extract folates from the food matrix. The purpose of this study was to complement the folate database by analyzing folate content in foods using a more effective method to extract food folates (trienzyme treatment). Folate content per unit weight was highest in laver, fermented soybeans, soybean, spinach, black soybeans, crown daisy, mung beans, and quail's egg in descending order. Legumes, leafy greens, eggs, and seaweeds were rich in folate, and meats, chicken, fish, and some fruits contained less folate. Some of the analyzed values were 10 times higher than those in the currently available database. Folate values of 423 foodcodes out of 2,932 foodcodes (14.4%) in the database in the 7th revision in the Recommended Dietary Allowances for Koreans can be replaced by those analyzed in this study. Since folate values of rice and Kimchi, which are core dishes of Koreans, in the newly established database are higher than those in the current database, folate intake assessed using our data will be higher than that using the current available database. Folate content in more foods commonly consumed in Korea are needed to update the folate database. Meanwhile, folate values presented here can be used to assess dietary folate intake of the Korean population.
Chickens ; Complement System Proteins ; Crowns ; Eggs ; Fabaceae ; Folic Acid* ; Fruit ; Korea* ; Meat ; Ovum ; Recommended Dietary Allowances ; Soybeans ; Spinacia oleracea

The genus Peronospora, an obligate biotrophic group belonging to Oomycota, causes serious damage to a variety of wild and ornamental plants, as well as cultivated crops, such as beet, rose, spinach, and tobacco. To investigate the diversity of Peronospora species parasitic to Stellaria and Pseudostellaria (Caryophyllaceae) plants in Korea, we performed a morphological analysis on dried herbarium specimens and molecular phylogenetic inferences based on internal transcribed spacer rDNA and cox2 mitochondrial DNA sequences. As a result, it was confirmed that there are four species of Peronospora parasitic to specific species of Stellaria and Pseudostellaria, all of which were hitherto unrecorded in Korea: P. alsinearum (ex Stellaria media), P. stellariae-aquaticae (ex Stellaria aquatica), P. stellariae-uliginosae (ex Stellaria alsine), and P. pseudostellariae (ex Pseudostellaria palibiniana). In addition, Peronospora specimens parasitic to Pseudostellaria davidii differed morphologically from P. pseudostellariae owing to the large and ellipsoidal conidia; this morphological discrepancy was also validated by the high genetic divergence between the two species. Peronospora casparyi sp. nov. is described and illustrated here.
Beta vulgaris ; Caryophyllaceae ; Classification* ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; DNA, Ribosomal ; Host Specificity ; Korea* ; Oomycetes ; Peronospora* ; Phylogeny* ; Spinacia oleracea ; Spores, Fungal ; Stellaria* ; Tobacco