What is Red Yeast Rice?

Red yeast rice is rice that has been fermented by the red yeast, Monascus purpureus. It has been used by the Chinese for many centuries as a food preservative, food colorant (it is responsible for the red color of Peking duck), spice, and ingredient in rice wine. Red yeast rice continues to be a dietary staple in China, Japan, and Asian communities in the United States, with an estimated average consumption of 14 to 55 grams of red yeast rice per day per person.

Red yeast rice also has been used in China for over 1,000 years for medicinal purposes. Red yeast rice was described in an ancient Chinese list of drugs as useful for improving blood circulation and for alleviating indigestion and diarrhea.

Recently, red yeast rice has been developed by Chinese and American scientists as a product to lower blood lipids, including cholesterol and triglycerides.

How is red yeast rice produced?

It is produced by the fermentaion of selected strains of Monascus purpureaus, using a proprietary process that produces a certain concentration of monacolin K (monacolin K is lovastatin, which is believed to be the major cholesterol-lowering ingredient).

What is the composition of red yeast rice?

In 1977, Professor Endo in Japan discovered a natural cholesterol-lowering substance that is produced by a strain of Monascus yeast. This substance inhibits HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme that is important for the production of cholesterol in the body. Professor Endo named this substance moncacolin K. Since then, scientists have discovered a total of 8 monacolin-like substances that have cholesterol-lowering properties.

How effective is red yeast rice in lowering lipids?

Chinese scientists conducted most of the animal and human studies on this issue. The results of some 17 studies involving approximately 900 Chinese subjects with modestly elevated cholesterol levels have been published. In 8 of these studies, there was a control group that received a placebo (a pill with no active ingredients) for comparison purposes. In 9 of the studies, there was no placebo control group.

These studies consistently showed that red yeast rice lowers total cholesterol (by an average of 10-30%), lower LDL cholesterol (by an average of 10-20%), lower triglycerides (by an average of 15-25%), and increase HDL (by an average of 7-15%).