Monascus ruber

Hajjaj, H. et ah. Production and identification of N-glucosylrubropunctamine and N-glucosyhnonascorubramine from Monascus ruber and occurrence of electron donor-acceptor complexes in these pigments, Appl Environ. Microbiol, 63, 2671, 1997. Jung, H. et ah. Color characteristics of Monascus pigments derived by fermentation with various amino acids, J. Agric. Food Chem., 51, 1302, 2003. 

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. 

Hajjaj, H. et al.. The biosynthetic pathway of citrinin in the filamentous fungi Monascus ruber as revealed by C-NMR, Appl. Env. Microbiol, 65, 311, 1999. Hajjaj, H. et al.. Medium-chain fatty acids affect citrinin production in the filamentous fungus Monascus ruber, Appl. Env. Microbiol, 66, 1120, 2000. 

Hajjaj, H. et al.. Kinetic analysis of red pigment and citrinin production by Monascus ruber as a function of organic acid accumulation, Enz. Microb. Technol, 27, 619, 2000. 

Aspergillus terreus Merck Co Thom, and Lovalip/Riesel Monascus ruber van Ti em, Eumyc. 

Dietary compounds are represented in a number of highly successful drugs such as lovastatin 31 and salicylic acid, the archetypal statin and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, respectively. Lovastatin occurs in the red yeast of rice Monascus ruber),91 an ingredient of Eastern cuisine used to give a red colour to the Pekinese duck, while salicylic acid is ubiquitous in plants.92 Other important dietary drug candidates are curcumin 32 from turmeric and capsaicin from hot pepper 33,93 while traces of pharmaceutical benzodiazepines (including diazepam) occur in common edible plants such as potatoes and cherries.5... 

Pastrana L, Loret MO, Blanc PJ, Goma G Production of citrinin by Monascus ruber submerged culture in chemical defined media. Acta Biotech Environ Microbiol 1996 16 315-319. 

Rhyu, M. R., Kim, D. K., Kim, H. Y., and Kim, B. K. 2000. Nitric oxide-mediated endothelium-dependent relaxation of rat tlroracic aorta induced by aqueous extract of red rice fermented with Monascus ruber. J. Ethnopharmacol. 70(1), 29-34. 

In 1976, mevastatin (ML-236B, 6-demethylmevinolin) (2) was first reported as a potent competitive inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase from the culture of Penicillium citrinum [23,24], which is identical with compactin, an antifungal compound isolated from P. brevicompactum [25,26]. Lovastatin (mevinolin, monacolin K) (3) has been isolated from the cultures of Aspergillus terreus [27] and Monascus ruber [28,29], separately. 

Monascus ruber Monascus ruber Penicillium rubrum Talaromyces udagawae Penicillium rubrum Penicillium wortmannii Penicillium vermiculatum Penicillium funiculosum Penicillium vermiculatum Talaromyces tardifaciens Penicillium wortmannii Aspergillus ustus... 

The development and use of HMGRIs began in 1976 with the discovery of mevastatin. Originally named compactin, this fungal metabolite was isolated from two different species of Penicillium and demonstrated potent, competitive inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase. Its affinity for the enzyme was shown to be 10,000-fold greater than that of the substrate HMG-CoA (22). Several years later, a structurally similar compound was isolated from Monascus ruber and Aspergillus terreus. This compound was originally known as... 

It was discovered by the Merck Sharp Dohme Research Laboratories that a strain of Aspergillus terreus obtained from a soil sample produced the cholesterol lowering fungal metabolite lovastatin (initially named mevinolin). Details of the isolation, structural characterization and biochemicai properties of iovastatin have been summarized by Alberts et al. (1). Lovastatin is identicai to monacoiin K isoiated independently from Monascus ruber by Endo (2). 

Endo left Sankyo at the beginning of 1979, and became an Associate Professor at the Noko University in Tokyo, where he continued his research on HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. In August 1979, he isolated from the fungus Monascus ruber a compound, which he named monacoUn K, but which soon proved to be identical with lovastatin. 

Figure 6.31 Biosynthesis of citrinin from Monascus ruber.

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