Red Yeast Rice - Possible Contamination

[Harry Hirsute]

01-Jul-2008 - A US product survey has found that four out of ten red yeast rice supplements were contaminated with a fungal substance called citrinin that has been linked with kidney problems in animal and human populations.

Consumerlab.com said that while red yeast rice products had clinical backing demonstrating their effectiveness as pharmaceutical statin alternatives, manufacturers needed to be wary of a problem that has the potential to become a health hazard.

Citrinin is a mycotoxin of varying toxicity that is used in the production of foods such as rice but its effect on human populations has not been determined although higher rates of kidney disease have been reported in the Balkans where elevated levels of citrinin exist.

"What we noticed was that the levels of citrinin were highest in the products that had the lowest doses of monacolin-K and so there may be some kind of interaction going on there," Consumerlab.com President Tod Cooperman told NutraIngredients-USA.com.

"We hope the products that have been found to be contaminated will be altered and all companies manufacturing these products will test their products to ensure they are contaminated."

Monacolin-K is otherwise known as lovastatin (the active agent in red yeast rice).

He said that while the danger to public health was not known until further studies were conducted, consumers would gravitate toward products they knew not to be contaminated.

http://nutraingredients-usa.com/news...atins-citrinin

ConsumerLab.com purchased 10 red yeast rice dietary supplements sold in the United States and tested them for levels of monacolins, citrinin and lead. None of the products were found to contain lead. Four products—from Solaray, Natural Balance, VegLife and Walgreens—were found to contain citrinin, a mycotoxin with possible nephrotoxicity. Those four products also were found to have the lowest levels of monacolins; levels between 3.1 mg and 10.6 mg of monacolins per pill were reported for products from 21st Century, Cholestene, Chole-sterin, Healthy America, Nature’s Plus and Schiff.

http://www.naturalproductsinsider.co...ce-report.html

[scorpiotiger]

are these manufactured in the US? or are they from China?

thanks, Harry, for alerting us to this. kind of scary...

[Harry Hirsute]

ST,

Most of the brands in question are manufactured in the USA. I'm not sure where they get their raw materials from however.

BTW, Solaray owns VegLife. The raw material is likely to be the same. So, at least two (of the four) are probably coming from the same source.

http://www.nutraceutical.com/