Evaluation of Physiological Functionalities and Anti-inflammatory Activity on <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> Cultured Adventitious Root of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Platycodon grandiflorum</Emphasis>

This study was executed to evaluate the phenolic content, DPPH, ABTS radical scavenging rate, nitrite scavenging rate, and anti-inflammatory activity from in vitro cultured adventitious root extract of different Platycodon grandiflorum(PG) variety. Total polyphenol and flavonoid content showed the highest amount in adventitious root extract of tetraploid PG, and followed by green petal, double petal and diploid PG extract. The DPPH radical scavenging activity showed that the increase was proportional to the concentration, especially, the scavenging activity at a concentration of 10 mg mL^-1 was higher than 80%. The ABTS radical scavenging activity was not significantly different among the PG varieties at the concentration of 5 mg mL^-1 or more, and generally showed high scavenging activity. The nitrite scavenging activity was affected by pH, at pH of 1.2, the scavenging effect of all of the extracts tested observed higher than that of the other two pH ranges. The cytotoxicity of PG extract at various concentrations, the survival rate of RAW 264.7 cell was more than 90% at a concentration of 200 μg mL^-1 or less, and it was confirmed that the macrophage cell showed little toxicity. After PG extract pretreatment at 50, 100, and 200 μg mL^-1, LPS-treated experimental group significantly inhibited NO production in a dose-dependent manner. The dose-response trends followed quadratic regressions in all PG varieties. The PG extracts showed a considerable range of influence on cytokine secretion. The effect of adventitious root extracts of PG against inflammatory mediators TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β production showed the most significant anti-inflammatory activity.