Mini-review: medication safety of red yeast rice products

Abstract

André Farkouh,1 Christoph Baumgärtel21Division of Clinical Pharmacy and Diagnostics, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, A-1090, Austria; 2AGES Austrian Medicines and Medical Devices Agency and Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care, A-1200 Vienna, AustriaAbstract: High lipid levels in the blood together with high blood pressure and diabetes are among the highest risks for coronary heart disease. In particular, elevated cholesterol levels promote the progression of atherosclerosis. Red yeast rice, also called red fermented rice or red mold rice, is used as a dietary supplement to lower cholesterol levels. It contains varying amounts of natural monacolin K, which is a structural homolog to lovastatin, and shows hypocholesterolemic properties comparable to synthetic statins. Despite being portrayed as a natural alternative, the potential of red yeast rice for side effects and interactions is comparable to statin drugs. Consumers need to be made aware of the varying monacolin K content in red yeast rice products and the insufficient long-term safety data regarding the potential risks of red yeast rice.Keywords: red yeast rice, monacolin K, p-glycoprotein, pharmacokinetics

Keywords

• Red yeast rice
• monakolin K
• p-glycoprotein
• pharmacokinetics