PROUDUCTON OF RED YEAST RICE BY Monascus Purpureus

Different cultural media were employed to study their effects on the production of red yeast rice ( R.Y.R) with high concentration of lovastatin by Monascus purpureus . A modified medium containing 200 g sterile local rice. 4 g mannose, 2.5 g monosodium glutamate and 2 g yeast extract at pH 5.0 was inOCulated by 25 ml of a 7-day culture of the above fungus and incubated statically at 30 °C for 72 hours. then incubated at 25 °C for 10 days with environmental humidity being around 65 % using these conditions 0.2365 % of lovastatin was produced. The amount of dry R.Y.R. produced was 113 g from 200 9 rice, which contains 1,419 mg lovastatin in 600 mg dry RtYR,