What Is Monascus Purpureus?

Monascus purpureus Went. Chinese aliases are red yeast rice, red glutinous rice, and red rice. Ascomycete Aspergillus fungi in the order of Ascomycetes. Exist in trees, soil, and deposits. It grows well on wort agar medium, the colonies are white at first, and become pale pink, purple or gray-black after mature. More red.

Monascus grows well on wort agar medium, the colonies are white at first, and become pale after mature.

Monascus can grow at 15 ~ 45 , the optimum temperature is 32 ~ 35 , the optimum pH is 3.5-5.0, and it has good acid and ethanol resistance. ^[2]

Can use starch,

Monascus fermentation can produce a variety of metabolites, including monascus pigments, cholesterol synthesis inhibitors, blood pressure-lowering substances, various enzymes, bacteriostatic substances and other various physiologically active substances. In addition, Monascus mycelium also contains a variety of nutrients. ^[2]

Cuckoo from China, North Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Monascus has strong saccharified -amylase activity, so it can be used to produce red maltose. Monascus has higher protease activity, so it can be used to pickle high-protein foods such as fish, meat, and tofu. ^[1]

Application in the production of bran liquor

Monascus in the bran koji used in the production of Shanxi Liuqu wine is Monascus, which is isolated from Daqu of Fen liquor. When brewing fragrant bran liquor, the saccharification starter made by adding Monascus is more than the saccharification starter without Monascus, and the aroma is longer and the aftertaste is longer. The content of total esters and total acids in wine both increased greatly. For brewing strong-flavor liquor, fermented with acid bacteria and saccharomyces cerevisiae, and co-fermented with Monascus, the production of esters increased significantly without Monascus, and the wine was also significantly fragrant. This may be because the Monascus used has higher esterification ability, and it can also produce various organic acids, such as lactic acid, succinic acid, etc., which is conducive to improving the flavor of liquor ^[1]

Application in strengthening Daqu fermentation production

Monascus has a certain saccharification and fermentation ability, and has a strong esterification force. Based on the traditional Daqu production, artificial artificial breeding of Monascus and yeast is added to make Daqu for enhanced Daqu for production. Daqu is better than traditional Daqu in terms of increasing its own milk, reducing milk, and improving the alcohol yield. ^[1]

Application in the production of Luzhou-flavor liquor by all-liquid method

The production of Luzhou-flavor liquor by liquid method has the problems of low acidity and low esters. The application of esterification fermentation method basically solves this contradiction. Yeast ethanol fermentation produces liquid wine, hexanoic acid is fermented to obtain caproic acid, hexanoic acid fermentation broth is added to the ethanol fermentation broth, and then red yeast rice is used for esterification fermentation to produce wine. ^[1]

Medical applications

It can extract ingredients that can lower serum cholesterol and blood pressure from red yeast rice, can also extract ergot sterol raw materials from red yeast rice, and prevent and treat antibacterial ingredients such as dysentery and chronic enteritis. ^[4]

Application in wine production

Red yeast rice can be used to produce rice wine, white wine and mixed wine. For example, the use of Monascus esculenta to cultivate Luzhou-type fortified Daqu can greatly increase the saccharification, liquefaction, fermentation, and esterification of Daqu. The No. 1 wine factory in Shangcai County, Henan, uses distilled wine to match The "Zhongyuan Red" wine produced from red yeast rice and rock sugar is of good quality. ^[4]

Production of fermented food

Monascus bean curd

It is used to make red yeast rice curd, red yeast rice sauce, red yeast rice sauce, red yeast rice vinegar and so on. ^[4]

Production of health drinks

Such as different types of red yeast sour drinks. ^[4]

Production of general red yeast rice

Such as red yeast bread, red yeast rice noodles, red yeast biscuits, barbecued pork and red yeast sausage. It has been reported that the process of adding nitrite to meat products to develop color, preserve rot and increase flavor has a long history. But nitrite is a precursor to the strongly carcinogenic nitrosamine. Some people use 1600mg / kg of red yeast rice to make sausages, the color of which is better than that of 150mg / kg sodium nitrite, and it does not change color when stored at 4 for 1 month. . ^[4]