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Monascus purpureus Went is the mold used to ferment cooked rice into red yeast rice, a traditional food colorant, flavoring and medicinal ingredient in China and Southeast Asia, also used in red rice wine and fermented tofu. It produces red, orange and yellow pigments and monacolin K (identical to lovastatin). Some strains also produce the nephrotoxic mycotoxin citrinin.
Cosmopolitan in culture; traditional use in East and Southeast Asia.
No strains cataloged yet for this species.
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