Article: Red yeast rice

Dried powdered red yeast rice

Red yeast rice (Chinese: 紅麴米, 红曲米; pinyin: hóng; lit. "red yeast rice"), red fermented rice, red kojic rice, red koji rice, or ang-kak, is a bright reddish purple fermented rice, which acquires its colour from being cultivated with the mold Monascus purpureus. In Japan, it is known as beni-koji (べにこうじ, lit. "red koji") or akakoji (あかこぎ, also meaning "red koji").

Red yeast rice is sold in jars at Asian markets as a pasteurized wet aggregate, whole dried grains, or as a ground powder. It was a commonly used red food colouring in East Asian and Chinese cuisine prior to the discovery of chemical food colouring. It has also been used in Chinese herbal medicine.

Production

Red yeast rice is produced by cultivating Monascus purpureus on polished rice. The rice is first soaked in water until the grains are fully saturated. The raw soaked rice can then either be directly inoculated, or steamed for the purpose of sterilizing and cooking the grains prior to inoculation. Inoculation is done by mixing M. purpureus spores or powdered red yeast rice together with the processed rice. The mix is then incubated in an environment around room temperature for 3-6 days. During this period of time, the rice should be fully cultured with M. purpureus, with each rice grain turning bright red in its core and reddish purple on the outside.

The fully cultured rice is then either cooked and pasteurized to be sold as a wet paste, or dried and pulverized to be sold as a fine powder. China is the world's largest producer of red yeast rice.

Due to the low cost of chemical dyes, some producers of red yeast rice have tried to adulterate their products with red dye [1](in Chinese).

Uses

Culinary

Red yeast rice is used to colour a wide variety of food products, including pickled tofu, red rice vinegar, char siu, and chinese pastries that require red food colouring. It is also traditionally used in the production of several types of Chinese wine and Japanese sake, imparting a reddish color to these wines.[2]

Although used mainly for its colour in cuisine, red yeast rice imparts a subtle but pleasant taste to food.

Chinese medicine

In addition to its culinary use, red yeast rice is also used in traditional Chinese herbology and traditional Chinese medicine. Its use has been documented as far back as the Tang Dynasty in China in 800 A.D. and taken internally to invigorate the body, aid in digestion, and remove "blood blockages".

Western medicine

Red yeast rice contains significant quantites of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin, a naturally-occurring statin. It is sold as an over the counter dietary supplement for controlling cholesterol (See ref.: Medicine Net). There is strong scientific evidence for its effect in lowering blood levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein/LDL ("bad cholesterol"), and triglyceride levels and is therefore regulated as a drug by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In 1998, the US district court in Utah allowed it to be sold without restriction, but this was reversed on appeal. (Moore, 2001) (see ref.: PDRhealth). It is recommended that drugs or food supplements containing red yeast rice extracts should only be used when prescribed by a physician (see ref in : MedlinePlus).