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Red yeast rice

As a food product, rice fermented with a red Monascus fungus (red rice) has been known and used for hundreds of years in China. Red rice is known mostly for its use in food as a preservative and colorant and its uses in the dye industry. Red rice (known in Chinese as Hung-ch'u or Hongqu) has also been known and used for hundreds of years in China in rice wine making and as a food preservative. In addition, red rice has been known as an ancient Chinese medicine or an ingredient in certain ancient Chinese prescriptions. Red yeast is useful for treating indigestion, diarrhea, and improving the health of the spleen, stomach, and circulation. In Ancient China, Monascus was called "Hongqu" and was said to have the ability to cure stomach and spleen, to strengthen the blood, and the principle to preserve and endorse the common Qi interdependent.

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