Red yeast rice
Red yeast rice (), red rice "koji" (べにこうじ, lit. 'red "koji"'), red fermented rice, red kojic rice, red "koji" rice, anka, or angkak, is a bright reddish purple fermented rice, which acquires its color from being cultivated with the mold "Monascus purpureus". Red yeast rice is what is referred to as a "koji" in Japanese, meaning "grain or bean overgrown with a mold culture", a food preparation tradition going back to ca. 300 BC. In both the scientific and popular literature in English that draws principally on Japanese traditional use, red yeast rice is most often referred to as "red rice "koji."" English language articles favoring Chinese literature sources prefer the translation "red yeast rice."

In addition to its culinary use, red yeast rice is also used in Chinese herbology and Traditional Chinese medicine. Its use has been documented as far back as the Tang Dynasty in China in 800 AD. Red yeast rice is described in the Chinese pharmacopoeia "Ben Cao Gang Mu" by Li Shizhen. Recommendations were to take it internally to invigorate the body, aid in digestion, and revitalize the blood.

A modern-era use as a dietary supplement developed in the late 1970s after researchers were isolating lovastatin from "Aspergillus" and monacolins from "Monascus", respectively, the latter being the same fungus used to make red yeast rice. Chemical analysis soon showed that lovastatin and monacolin K were identical. Different strains of "Monascus" fungus will produce different amounts of monacolins. The 'Went' strain of "Monascus purpureus" (purpureus = dark red in Latin), when properly fermented and processed, will yield a dried red yeast rice powder that is approximately 0.4% monacolins, of which roughly half will be monacolin K. The two isolations, documentations and patent applications occurred months apart. Lovastatin became the patented, prescription drug Mevacor. Red yeast rice went on to become a non-prescription dietary supplement in the United States and other countries. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated action to ban a dietary supplement containing red yeast rice extract. The FDA position was that red yeast rice products that contain monacolin K are identical to a prescription drug and, thus, subject to regulation as a drug. The U.S. District Court in Utah ruled in favor of allowing the product to be sold without restriction. This decision was reversed on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2001.
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Monascus purpureus
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Japanese
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Q7850
Chinese
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Chinese herbology
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Traditional Chinese medicine
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Ben Cao Gang Mu
MEDIA
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Li Shizhen
PER
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lovastatin
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Aspergillus
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Monascus
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Q417740
lovastatin
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dietary supplement
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Q204711
Food and Drug Administration
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Q1135788
Red yeast rice
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Q1135788
Red yeast rice
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Q1135788
Red yeast rice
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Q1135788
Red yeast rice
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1970
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2001
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