Monascus purpureus

Monascus is cultivated on solid media in Asian countries to produce a red colorant named Anka and used as a food ingredient. A Chinese medical book on herbs published in the first century first mentioned the terms ang-kak and red mold rice. Red mold rice has been used as a food colorant or spice in cooking. In 1884, the French botanist Philippe van Thieghem isolated a purple mold on potato and linseed cakes and named it Monascus ruber. This ascomycete was so named because it has only one polyspored ascus. In 1895, Went isolated a mold from the red mold rice obtained from a market in Java, Indonesia. This fungus was named Monascus purpureus, after which several other species were isolated around the world. 

Hamdi, M., Blanc, P.J., and Goma, G., A new process for red pigment production by Monascus purpureus culture on prickly pear juice and the effect of partial oxygen pressure. Bioprocess Eng., 17, 75, 1995. 

Kuba, M., Tana, C., Tawata, S., and Yasuda, M. (2005). Production of angiotensin-I converting enzyme inhibitory peptides from soybean protein with Monascus purpureus acid proteinase. Process Biochem. 40, 2191-2196. 

Rhabdomyolysis in a stable renal transplant recipient was attributed to the presence of red yeast rice (Monascus purpureus) in a herbal mixture (116). The condition resolved when he stopped taking the product. Rice fermented with red yeast contains several types of mevinic acids, including monacolin-K, which is identical to lovas-tatin. The authors postulated that the interaction of ciclosporin with these compounds through cytochrome P450 had resulted in the adverse effect. Transplant recipients must be cautioned against using herbal products to lower their lipid concentrations, in order to prevent such complications. 

Sheu F, Wang CL, Shyu YT (2000) J Food Sci 65 342 Fermentation of Monascus purpureus on bacterial cellulose-nata and the color stability of Monascus-nata complex... 

Monascus purpureus Fermented cooked rice Der Marderosian and Beutler (2002)... 

Figure 2 (a) General architecture of NR PKS genes proposed mechanism of, (b) the WAS CLC domain, (c) the Monascus purpureus citrinin PksCT and A. strictum MOS synthases and (d) domain architecture of A. terreus and P. patulum MSAS, and proposed mechanism of 6-MSA 2 and TAL 44. 

Prasad GV, Wong T, Meliton G, Bhaloo S. Rhabdomyolysis due to red yeast rice (Monascus purpureus) in a renal transplant recipient. Transplantation 2002 74(8) 1200-1. 

Patulin and citrinin are both produced by Penicillium species. Citrinin was first isolated from P. citrinum, from which it derived its name. Today, it is known that apart from Penicillium species like P. citreonigrum, P. citrinum, P. expansum, and P. verrucosum, citrinin is also produced by other species like A. candidus, A. terreus, and Monascus purpureus or M. ruber (Weidenborner, 2001). The occurrence of citrinin is mainly associated with rice and other cereals, but citrinin has also been detected in raisins (Meister, 2003) and in apples (Martins et al., 2002). 

Campoy, S., Perez, F., Martin, J. F., Gutierrez, S., and Liras, P. 2003. Stable transformants of the azaphilone pigment-producing Monascus purpureus obtained by protoplast transformation and Agrobacterium-mediated DNA transfer. Curr. Genet. 43(6), 447-452. 

Cicero, A. F., Brancaleoni, M., Laghi, L., Donati, F., and Mino, M. 2005. Antihyperlipidaemic effect of a Monascus purpureus brand dietary supplement on a large sample of subjects at low risk for cardiovascular disease A pilot study. Complement. Ther. Med. 13(4), 273-278. 

Fenice, M., Federici, F., Selbmann, L., and PetruccioU, M. 2000. Repeated-batch production of pigments by immobilised Monascus purpureus. ]. Biotechnol. 80(3), 271-276. 

Hipler, U. C., Wigger-Alberti, W., Bauer, A., and Eisner, P. 2000. Monascus purpureus A new fungus of allergenic relevance. Mycoses 43(Suppl. 2), 29-31. 

Hsieh, P. S. and Tai, Y. H. 2003. Aqueous extract of Monascus purpureus M9011 prevents and reverses fructose-induced hypertension in rats. J. Agric. Food Chem. 51(14), 3945-3950. Hsieh, Y. T. and Pan, T. M. 2002. The analytic metliods and assays for secondary metabolites... 

Johnson, G. T. and McHan, F. 1975. Some effect of zinc on the utilization of carbon sources by Monascus purpureus. Mycologia 67(4), 806-816. 

Li, Y. G., Liu, H., and Wang, Z. T. 2005c. A validated stability-indicating HPLC with photodiode array detector (PDA) method for the stress tests of Monascus purpureus-fermented rice, red yeast rice. J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 39(1-2), 82-90. 

Martinkova, L., Patakova-Juzlova, P., Krent, V., Kucerova, Z., Havlicek, V., Olsovsky, P., Hovorka, O., Rihova, B., Vesely, D., Vesela, D., Ulrichova, J., and Prikrylova, V. 1999. Biological activities of oUgoketide pigments of Monascus purpureus. Food Addit. Contam. 16(1), 15-24. 

Rasheva, T. V., Nedeva, T. S., Hallet, J. N., and Kujumdzieva, A. V. 2003. Characterization of a non-pigment producing Monascus purpureus mutant strain. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 83(4), 333-340. 

Shimizu, T., Kinoshita, H., Ishihara, S., Sakai, K., Nagai, S., and Nihira, T. 2005. Polyketide synthase gene responsible for citrinin biosynthesis in Monascus purpureus. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71(7), 3453-3457. 

Wang, J. J., Lee, C. L., and Pan, T. M. 2003a. Improvement of monacolin K, gamma-aminobutyric acid and citrinin production ratio as a function of environmental conditions of Monascus purpureus NTU 601. ]. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 30(11), 669-676. 

Wei, W., Lim, C., Wang, Y., Su, H., Zhu, J., and Kritchevsky, D. 2003. Hypolipidemic and anti-atherogenic effects of long-term Cholestin (Monascus purpureus-ferraented rice, red yeast rice) in cholesterol fed rabbits. /. Nutr. Biochem. 14(6), 314—318. 

Wong, H. C. 1982. Antibiotic and pigment production by Monascus purpureus. Ph. D. Thesis, University of Georgia. 

Wong, H. C. and Bau, Y. S. 1977. Pigmentation and antibacterial activity of fast neutron- and x-ray-induced strains of Monascus purpureus Went. Plant Physiol. 60, 578-581. 

Monascus purpureus by carbon and nitrogen concentration. Mpcologia 73, 649-654. 

Monascus purpureus Monascus rubiginosus Monascus rubropunctatus Monascus rubropunctatus... 

Trichodiene (49 Scheme 1) has been detected as a volatile product of Monascus purpureus and of Stachybotrys atra, but the trichothecene relatives (Table 8), including, possibly, the loukacinols (see note c), are essentially products of Fusarium spp. and T. roseum. 

Patakova-Juzlova P, Rezanka T, Viden I (1998) Identification of Volatile Metabolites flom Rice Fermented by the Fungus Monascus purpureus. Folia Microbiol 43 407... 

J. Liu, J. Zhang, Y. Shi, S. Grimsgaard, T. Alraek, V. Foimebo (2006) Chinese red yeast rice (Monascus purpureus) for primary hyperlipidemia a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Chin. Med., 1,4. 

Ochaikul, D., Chotirittikrai, K., Chantra, J., Wutigomsombatkul, S., 2006. Studies on fermentation of Monascus purpureus TISTR 3090 with bacterial cellulose from Acetobacter xylinum TISTR 967. KMITL Science and Technology Journal 6, 13—17. 

Six anka pigments (rubropunctatin, monascorubrin, monascin, ankaflavin, monascorubramine, rubropunctatamine) were extracted from a Monascus purpureus fermentation broth and separated on a C,g column (A = 233 nm). Elution was complete in 18 min using an 80/20 acetonitrile/water mobile phase. Pfeak shapes were broad yet well resolved. Positive identification was achieved through positive ion APCI/MS/MS [1230]. 

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