| Abstract
| - Monascus purpureus and its fermentation products have been used in food coloring and meatpreservation in Asia for centuries and have also been recently used as dietary supplements becauseof their cholesterol-lowering ability. However, the presence of the mycotoxin citrinin (CTN), a secondarymetabolite of Monascus species, in fermentation products is a potential threat to public health. In thepresent study, HPLC was used to analyze CTN levels in lipid and aqueous extracts of commercializedMonascus products. CTN was detected in lipid extracts of all examined samples at concentrationsvarying between 0.28 and 6.29 μg/g, but was not found in aqueous extracts. When human embryonickidney cells (HEK293) were incubated for 72 h with Monascus extracts, the concentrations causing50% cell death by all lipid extracts were in the range of 1.8−4.7 mg/mL, whereas aqueous extractsshowed a lower cytotoxicity. Incubation of HEK293 cells with 60 μM pure CTN for 72 h caused cellviability to fall to 50% of control levels. In addition, coadministration of pure CTN and lipid extractsfrom Monascus samples significantly enhanced CTN cytotoxicity for HEK293 cells using the MTTassay. These results provide the first information about the cytotoxic effects of various Monascussamples and CTN−Monascus mixtures on a human cell line. Keywords: Citrinin (CTN); Monascus fermentation products; HPLC; cytotoxicity
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