Red Yeast Rice (Monascus purpureus)

Description:

Red yeast rice is an Asian dietary staple made by fermenting red yeast (Monascus purpureus) on rice. It has been used in China for about 1200 years as a food preservative, natural colorant in the production of red rice wine and red bean curd and for medicinal purposes.

Red yeast rice products vary greatly in their content of the presumed primary active agents, the monacolins, a group of fungal metabolites. Monacolin K, one of the ten different monacolins identified, is chemically identical to the drug lovastatin, the first of a class called “statins.”

Physiologic Therapeutics:

• Lowers blood levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides
• Direct inhibitory effect on HMG-CoA-reductase and reduced cellular cholesterol levels

Clinical Indications:

• Atherosclerosis

Dosage:

• 1200 mg. with 50 mg. Coenzyme Q10 2 times a day

Drug/Nutrient Interaction:

• No known drug or nutrient interactions associated with red yeast rice

Copyright 1998 - 2008 by L. Vicky Crouse, ND and James S. Reiley, ND. All rights reserved (ISSN 1527-0661).