Sookmyung Women's University

High-purity 1,3-distearoyl-2-oleoylglycerol (StOSt) was produced from high-oleic sunflower oil and ethyl stearate via a two-step enzymatic interesterification combined with a two-step solvent fractionation. Lipozyme RM IM (Rhizomucor miehei) was employed as a biocatalyst and the reaction was conducted in a packed-bed reactor. Molecular distillation was used to remove fatty acid ethyl esters from the reaction mixtures after enzymatic reactions. The optimum conditions were a temperature of 55 °C, a water content of 300 ppm (based on the total weight of the substrate), and a molar ratio of 1:8 (triacylglycerol (TAG) to ethyl stearate). The second enzymatic interesterification was carried out under the optimum conditions, resulting in the synthesis of 67.8 % StOSt-enriched TAG. To further enrich StOSt, two rounds of solvent fractionation were conducted using n-hexane and acetone, respectively. Consequently, StOSt TAG with a high purity of 83 % was achieved through the processes designed in this study.

Multi-herbal formulations in East Asian traditional medicine have long played an important role in disease treatment and modern drug discovery. Despite extensive efforts toward standardization, quality control remains challenging due to their chemical complexity and richness in polar metabolites, which complicate chromatography-based methods. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy offers an alternative solution; however, previous studies have mainly focused on single formulations, with limited systematic analysis across multiple formulations. This study explores the applicability of ¹H NMR spectroscopy for quality control in East Asian traditional medicine products by analyzing 86 batch samples from 30 formulations, manufactured in a GMP-certified facility. Pearson correlation efficients between binned spectra were calculated to evaluate both batch-to-batch and formulation-to-formulation similarities. Batch-to-batch correlations were consistently high (r > 0.99), indicating excellent reproducibility. In contrast, formulation-to-formulation correlations ranged from 0.72 to 1.00, largely influenced by saccharide abundance. Additionally, three major specialized metabolites-paeoniflorin, naringin, and baicalin-were identified based on their characteristic proton signals, and their presence correlated with the herbal composition of each formulation. These findings highlight the potential of ¹H NMR analysis as an effective solution for the quality control of traditional medicines, addressing the challenges posed by their chemical complexity while ensuring consistency and providing detailed insights into metabolite variations among formulations.

This study explored the relationship between a multidimensional typology of religiosity and risk of mortality. Using data from middle-aged Southern California respondents in the Longitudinal Study of Generations, we performed latent class analysis to construct a typology of religiosity, which was then used to predict mortality from 1971 to 2020. We identified four religiosity classes: strongly, weakly, privately, and liberally religious. Cox proportional hazard models revealed that privately religious males had greater mortality risk than strongly religious males, even after controlling for the mediators self-rated health and psychological wellbeing. In women, risk of mortality was explained by these mediators rather than by religiosity.