RE: [Fwd: Red yeast rice

[Guest guest]

From the original message: -Red Yeast Rice -M. purpureus(?)-Gero Vita and

Pharmanex claim this is a

> Chinese Medicinal Herb and is effective to lower cholesterol. It is not

> in my books and I've asked a couple suppliers and they don't recognize

> it by that name.

 

The Chinese name of Red Yeast Rice is Hong qu. Monascus purpureus is the

correct Latin name. It has been used traditionally as a digestive and to

improve circulation. It has also been used as an additive to color a

specific Taiwanese wine as well as other foods such as bean curd. One of the

head researchers at Merck, Michael???something (Chinese heritage, can't

remember the last name), who helped develop their statin drug for the

treatment of high cholesterol, left Merck a few years ago and started a

company in China to develop Hong qu as a standardized dietary supplement for

the treatment of high cholesterol. It turns out that the statin drugs were

based on a naturally occurring statin in hong qu called lovostatin. There

are low levels of numerous statin components in hong qu, mevastatin and

others, in addition to the lovostatin. Hong qu has been traditionally

produced by combining the yeast with white rice, covering it with burlap,

and burying it in the ground to let it ferment. It is still produced that

way in some areas, but now it is produced in more modern (used loosely)

fermentation manufacturing plants around China. The statin content can be

measured by HPLC methods, however you cannot measure all the different

statin components with most of the analytical methods currently available.

For that reason I have worked with a couple of different university labs

doing cardiovascular research to set up a bioassay to measure the statin

activity instead of the chemical components. They compare the activity of

various hong qu samples with pure lovostatin. The activity is being

measured is the inhibition of HMG CoA reductase, an enzyme in the liver that

stimulates the internal production of cholesterol. The activity levels vary

greatly from one manufacturer to another. Many have taken to spiking their

hong qu with pharmaceutical grade statins that are readily available in the

pharmaceutical marketplace in China. There are analytical methods that can

detect the difference between naturally occurring and spiked, although most

commercial labs do not have that capability.

 

The prologue on this is that Pharmanex launched a product called Cholestin,

a standardized hong qu, in the spring of 1998(?) I think. They placed a

full page ad in the Wall Street Journal touting that their product " contains

lovostatin " . Merck and other pharmaceuticals with statin drugs on the

market that had gone through the lengthy and expensive process of getting

their drug approved, did not find this too amusing. The FDA was on their

case immediately and tried to take it off the market. Pharmanex got an

injunction and was able to continue selling while it went to court. The

Superior court in Utah ruled in Pharmanex's favor, stating that it should be

considered a dietary supplement under DSHEA back in February of 99. The FDA

appealed and won, with the judge saying it should not be considered a

dietary supplement and sent it back to the Utah court just last July.

 

Stephen Morrissey OMD

 

 

 

Friday, September 22, 2000 11:41 PM

cha

[Fwd: Thank you]

 

 

Chinese Herbal Medicine, a voluntary organization of licensed healthcare

practitioners, matriculated students and postgraduate academics specializing

in Chinese Herbal Medicine, provides a variety of professional services,

including board approved online continuing education.