Used to color a wide variety of food products, including pickled tofu, red rice vinegar, char siu, Peking Duck, and Chinese pastries and wine that require red food coloring
The amount typically used in clinical trials is 1200–2400 mg/day of red yeast rice containing approximately 10 mg total monacolins, of which half are monacolin K.
A meta-analysis of 20 clinical trials, range of red yeast rice dose 1200 to 4800 mg/day, reported LDL-cholesterol lowered by 39.4 mg/dL) compared to placebo.
The incidence of reported adverse effects ranged from 0% to 5% and was not different from controls.
China Coronary Secondary Prevention Study (CCSPS). Close to 5,000 post-heart attack patients were enrolled for an average of 4.5 years to receive either a placebo or a RYR product:In the treated group, risk of subsequent heart attacks was reduced by 45%, cardio deaths by 31%, and all-cause deaths by 33%.
The CCSPS heart attack and cardiovascular death outcomes appear to be better than what has been reported for prescription statin drugs.
The safety of red yeast rice products has not been established.
Likely unsafe during pregnancy.