• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.624-629
• /
• 2014

Obesity is the leading metabolic disease in industrialized countries and is closely associated with coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anti-adipogenic effects of two roasted coffee beans, Vietnam robusta (VR) and Ethiopia Mocha Sidamo G2 (ES), as well as fermented coffee beans with Monascus ruber (MR) mycelium on differentiation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Treatments with 1,000 ${\mu}g/mL$ of hot water extract from coffee beans significantly reduced intracellular lipid accumulation. In addition, VR more effectively inhibited transcription factors such as $PPAR{\gamma}$, $C/EBP{\alpha}$, FAS, and aP2 compared to ES. Further, ES fermented with MR showed more effective anti-adipogenic activity than non-fermented ES. These results suggest that VR and ES inhibit adipocyte differentiation which may contribute to their anti-adipogenic properties.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.229-234
• /
• 2003

Effects of Monascus koji on color, peroxide value, textural properties, microbial stability, and sensory characteristics of bologna-type sausage during storage at $4^{\circ}C$ for 22 days were studied. Addition of 2% Monascus koji resulted in attractive color and distinctly improved color retention. Lipid oxidation was effectively inhibited by lowering the level of peroxide value. Textural properties and microbial stability of the samples were not affected, whereas color was improved by the addition of Monascus koji. Utilization of Monascus koji in meat product could reduce the use of nitrite and inhibit lipid peroxidation during storage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.32 no.3
• /
• pp.464-468
• /
• 2003

The antihypertensive and cholesterol- lowering effects of Monascus koji (M. koji) prepared with Monascus ruber IFO32318 were examined in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Control was fed a normal diet and groups I, II or III were fed diets containing 0.03%, 0.1% or 0.3% M. koji for 8 weeks, respectively. After 8 weeks, all animals were fed normal diets in the following 2 weeks. The blood pressure of rats fed M. koji added diets were significantly attenuated as compared with control and the diet containing high concentration of M. koji had a tendency of stronger antihypertensive effect. These differences lasted throughout the experimental period when they were fed experimental diet. For 2 weeks after the 8 weeks of experimental diet all groups were fed the same normal diet and the differences of blood pressure caused by M. koji disappeared. In rats fed the M. koji added diet, the serum total cholesterol (TC), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) were not differed compared with control, but VLDL cholesterol (VLDL-C) was significantly lowered. M koji also significantly decreased serum risk factors, both TC/HDL-C ratio and non HDL-C/HDL-C ratio. Consequently, it is suggested that M. koji may play an important role to attenuate hypertension and to improve serum lipid Profiles.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.487-496
• /
• 2013

Green coffee beans (CB, Indonesian Mandheling) were fermented with three kinds of mushrooms (Phellinus linteus, PL; Hericium erinaceum, HE; Ganoderma lucidum, GL) or two kinds of mycelia from molds (Monascus purpureus, MP; Monascus ruber, MR) using solid-state culture to enhance physiological activity. After the roasting of fermented green coffee beans, roasted coffees were extracted with a hot-water decoction or 95% ethanol reflux. Yields from hot water extracts (HW, 17.7~25.3%) were higher than those from ethanolic extracts (EE, 9.5~12.2%). Hot-water extracts of roasted coffees from green coffee beans fermented with two molds (MP-CB-HW and MR-CB-HW) showed higher total polyphenols, flavonoids, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity than roasted coffees from non-fermented (CB-HW) or fermented green coffee beans with the three mycelia from mushrooms. MR-CB-HW also had the most potent macrophage stimulating and mitogenic activity (1.32 and 1.40-fold of CB-HW, respectively). In addition, MP-CB-EE and MR-CB-EE did not show any cytotoxicity to the RAW 264.7 cell at a concentration of $100{\mu}g/mL$, and these extracts significantly inhibited nitric oxide (NO) production from the LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cell line (38.6 and 37.0% of the LPS-treated group). Meanwhile, the chlorogenic acid concentrations of MP-CB-HW or MR-CB-HW highly increased (to 76.21 or $76.73{\mu}g/mL$, respectively), but caffeine concentrations were not affected by solid-state fermentation. In conclusion, the physiological activities of roasted coffees were enhanced by the solid-state culture of green coffee beans with M. purpureus or M. ruber, suggesting that these roasted coffees could possibly serve industrial applications as functional coffee beverages.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.299-304
• /
• 2005

This study investigated the feasibility of the bread making process with the mixture of the functional rice flour. The bread was manufactured with 20, 30 or 40% functional rice flour with increasing and wheat flour. Gelatinization characteristics of the rice starch was examined by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC). Coated with soluble dietary fiber rice showed the highest gelatinization enthalphy among functional rices and other functional rices were similar to normal rice. in the viscosity point of view. generally the viscosity related to the addition ratio. The most viscose case was 30% Sangwhang rice but in fermented with monascus ruber rice case, viscosity was low even with 40% case because of the transformation of the starch granules. In sensory evaluation, the highest sensory scores for the uniformity of pore size and flavor were obtained when sangwhang rice flour content was 20%. The textual study was mainly focused on the hardness, cohesiveness, adhesiveness, springiness, chewiness. Textural characteristics of functional rice bread crumb bakedwith 20% coated with soluble dietary fiber rice, 20% sangwhang was low in hardness, chewiness and gumminess. Therefore, Sangwhang rice flour 20%, Monascous ruber 20% and Coated soluble dietary fiber rice 20% were considered to be the most suitable addition ratio for the rice breads.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.305-312
• /
• 2007

It is crucial to develop a miniaturized cultivation method for large and rapid screening of high-yielding mutants of monacolin-K, a powerful anti-hypercholesterolemic secondary metabolite biosynthesized by the fungal cells of Monascus ruber. In order to investigate as many strains as possible in a short time, a miniaturized fermentation method especially suitable for the cultivation of the filamentous Monascus mutants was developed using $50m{\ell}$ culture-tube ($7m{\ell}$ of working volume) instead of the traditional $250m{\ell}$ flask ($50m{\ell}$ of working volume). Generally, in filamentous fungal cell fermentations, morphologies in growth and production cultures should be maintained as thick filamentous and compact-pelleted (usually less than 1 mm in diameter) forms, respectively, for enhanced production of secondary metabolites in final production cultures. In this study, we intended to induce the respective optimal morphologies in the miniaturized culture system for the purpose of rapid screening of overproducers. Miniaturized growth culture system was successfully developed due to the mass production of spores in the statistically optimized solid medium. When large amounts of spores were inoculated into the growth cultures, and brown rice flour (20 g/L) was also supplemented to the growth medium, dense filamentous morphologies were successfully induced in the growth cultures performed with the 50 ml culture tubes. It was implied that the amounts of spores inoculated into the growth tube-cultures and the growth medium components should be the key factors for the induction of the filamentous forms in the growth fermentations. Furthermore, in order to statistically optimize production medium, multiple experiments based on Plackett-Burman design and response surface method (RSM) were carried out, resulting in more than 2 fold enhanced production of monacolin-K in the final production cultures with the optimized production medium. Notably, under the production culture conditions with the statistically optimized medium, optimal pellet sizes below 1 mm in diameter were reproducibly induced, in contrast to the thick and viscous filamentous morphologies observed in the previous production cultures.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.341-348
• /
• 2014

We investigated the anti-obesity and anti-hyperlipidemic effects of extracts of two roasted coffee beans (Vietnam robusta and Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2) and fermented coffee beans with Monascus rubber mycelium (MR) by solid-state culture. C57B/L6 mice were divided into seven groups: normal diet (ND) group, high fat diet (HFD) group, and HFD groups with hot water extracts from Vietnam robusta coffee beans (HFD-VR), MR-fermented Vietnam robusta coffee beans (HFD-VR-MR), MR-fermented Vietnam robusta coffee beans with 10% brown rice (HFD-VR-MR-BR10), Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 coffee beans (HFD-ES), and MR-fermented Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 coffee beans (HFD-ES-MR). After 6 weeks, body weight gain and food efficiency ratio were higher in the HFD group, but significantly reduced in the coffee extracts-fed groups. The HFD-ES-MR group showed greater body weight reduction than the HFD-ES group. The serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol levels as well as the atherogenic index and cardiac risk factor all tended to decrease in groups fed Vietnam robusta coffee extracts compared to the HFD group. These results suggest that Vietnam robusta and Ethiopia mocha sidamo G2 may be used to make functional coffee beverages with anti-obesity and anti-hyperlipidemic activities.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.519-524
• /
• 2008

Monacolin-K is a strong anti-hypercholesterolemic agent produced by Monascus sp. via polyketide pathway. High-yielding mutants of monacolin-K were developed through rational screening strategies adopted based on understanding of monacolin-K biosynthetic pathway. Through the experiments for investigating various amino acids as putative precursors for the monacolin-K biosynthesis, it was found that production level of monacolin-K was remarkably increased when optimum amount of cysteine was supplemented into the production medium. We suggested that these phenomena might be related to the special roles of SAM (S-adenosyl methionine), a putative methyl group donor in the biosynthetic pathway of monacolin-K, demonstrating close interrelationship between SAM-synthesizing primary metabolism and monacolin-K synthesizing secondary metabolism. Namely, increase in the intracellular amount of SAM derived from the putative precursor, cysteine which was extracellularly supplemented into the production medium might contribute to the significant enhancement in the monacolin-K biosynthetic capability of the highly mutated producers. On the basis of these assumptions derived from the above fermentation results, we decided to construct efficient expression vectors harboring SAM synthetase gene (metK) cloned from A. nidulans, with the hope that increased intracellular level of SAM could lead to further enhancement in the monacolin-K production through overcoming a rate-limiting step associated with monacolin-K biosynthesis. Hence, in order to overcome the plausible rate-limiting step associated with monacolin-K biosynthesis by increasing intracellular level of SAM, we transformed the producer mutants with an efficient expression vector harboring gpdA promoter of the producer microorganism, and metK gene. Notably, from the resulting various transformants, we were able to screen a very high-yielding transformant which showed approximately 3.3 fold higher monacolin-K productivity than the parallel nontransformed mutants in shake flask cultures performed under the identical fermentation conditions.