Abstract
Red Yeast Rice, produced by solid state fermentation of Monascus species on rice, is a traditional food additive and traditional Chinese medicine. With the introduction of modern microbiology and biotechnology to the traditional edible filamentous fungi Monascus species, it has been revealed that the production of red colorant by fermentation of Monascus species involves the biosynthesis of orange Monascus pigments and further chemical modification of orange Monascus pigments into the corresponding derivates with various amine residues. Further study indicates that non-Monascus species also produce Monascus pigments as well as Monascus-like pigments. Based on the chemical modification of orange Monascus pigments, the diversification of native Monascus pigments, including commercial food additives of Red Monascus Pigments® and Yellow Monascus Pigments® in Chinese market, was reviewed. Furthermore, Monascus pigments as well as their derivates as enzyme inhibitors for anti-obesity, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia was also summarized.
Highlights
Filamentous fungi, known as a prolific producer of secondary metabolites, are an important resource for discovering small molecules of pharmaceutical as well as food colorant additives (Dufossé et al, 2014)
The Red Yeast Rice has been utilized as food colorant and traditional Chinese medicine for more than 1000 years (Ma et al, 2000; Chen et al, 2015)
The safety of Red Yeast Rice has been confirmed by Chinese as well as other East Asia people
Summary
Reviewed by: Thiyam General, Dongseo University, South Korea Muthukumaran Chandrasekaran, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. Red Yeast Rice, produced by solid state fermentation of Monascus species on rice, is a traditional food additive and traditional Chinese medicine. With the introduction of modern microbiology and biotechnology to the traditional edible filamentous fungi Monascus species, it has been revealed that the production of red colorant by fermentation of Monascus species involves the biosynthesis of orange Monascus pigments and further chemical modification of orange Monascus pigments into the corresponding derivates with various amine residues. Further study indicates that non-Monascus species produce Monascus pigments as well as Monascus-like pigments. Based on the chemical modification of orange Monascus pigments, the diversification of native Monascus pigments, including commercial food additives of Red Monascus Pigments R and Yellow Monascus Pigments R in Chinese market, was reviewed.
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