Monascus rice products

II. History of Using Monascus Rice Products in Asia 126... 

The fermentation products of Monascus, especially those produced by solid-state fermentation of rice, have been used as food and health remedies for over 1000 years in China. Monascus rice products (MRPs) are currently being used as health foods in the United States and many Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Many studies have shown that Monascus spp. produce commercially viable metabolites, including food colorants, cholesterol-lowering agents, and antibiotics. The most important bioactive compound isolated from Monascus is monacolin K, which is identical to the potent cholesterol-lowering, antiatherosclerotic drug lovastatin, a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl... 

II. HISTORY OF USING MONASCUS RICE PRODUCTS IN ASIA... 

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. 

Monascus spp. have been used as foods and medicines in the Orient for over 1000 years (Wong, 1982). In China and Taiwan, it has been called "Hong Qu," "Hon-Chi," "Anka," or "Ang-kak" using the Chinese or Taiwanese phonetic alphabet. The Japanese use the name "Beni Koji" or "red Koji." In the United States and Europe, it has been called "red rice," "red-mold rice," or "red Chinese rice." Many publications and commercial products use "red yeast rice," which is not an appropriate name for filamentous fungi. 

Traditionally, MRP is cultivated on steamed rice until the mycelium totally covers the whole surface of the grains and the product is used directly (Lotong, 1985 Su and Wang, 1983). Because large quantities of secondary metabolites and hydrolytic enzymes, such as a-amylase, /1-amylase, glucoamylase, protease, and lipase, are produced by Monascus spp., MRP is widely used as a preservative for meat and fish... 

For the production of monacolin K-containing MRP on an industrial scale especially, we have successfully developed a fermentation process by cultivating a low-citrinin, high-monacolin K-producing strain of M. purpureus on rice in an aseptic rotary vessel to minimize microbial contamination due to the slow growth of Monascus. In brief, steamed rice was inoculated with M. purpureus with an inoculum of 100 spores/kg raw rice. The inoculated rice was cultivated at 30 °C for 5 days until the steamed rice turned a deep red color. The colored rice was used as "seed Koji." The "seed Koji" was uniformly mixed with steamed rice at a ratio of 3% based... 

Since the formation of the secondary metabolites of the Monascus spp. is affected by cultivation conditions, Lee et al. (2006) used sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), potato Solanum tuberosum), cassava (Manihot esculenta), and dioscorea (Dioscorea batatas) as the substrates to identify the best choice for monacolin K production. The results showed that M. purpureus NTU 301, with dioscorea as the substrate, could produce monacolin K at 2584 mg/kg, which is 5.37 times more than that resulted when rice is used as the substrate. 

Since citrinin is a mycotoxin and possesses nephrotoxic and hepato-toxic effects, it has a negative impact on the acceptance of red mold rice by consumers. Studies on MRP with a high concentration of monacolin K and a low concentration of citrinin have been conducted by several laboratories (Chen and Hu, 2005 Wang et al., 2004). Since citrinin possesses antibacterial activity for B. subtilis, a simple and quick selection method for mutant strains with low citrinin production was developed based on the formation of an inhibition zone around the colony of the Monascus strain (Wang et al., 2004). Their results showed that mutant strain, M. purpureus N 301, only produced 0.23 mg/kg citrinin, which was 50% less than that of the parent strain. Chen and Hu (2005) obtained... 

Mevastatin (compactin) and lovastatin (mevinolin) are fungal fermentation products naturally produced by certain higher fungi. Mevastatin was first isolated by Akira Endo and co-workers in the 1970s from Penicillium citri-num Lovastatin is produced by Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushroom) and closely related to Pleurotus spp. as well as to Monascus purpureus (Chinese red yeast rice). Both mevastatin and lovastatin have a powerful inhibitory effect on HMG-CoA reductase. Discovered in the 1970s, they were taken into clinical development as potential dmgs... 

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