1. Introduction<br>Monacolin K (MK), also known as lovastatin, is the major active<br>component in red yeast rice (RYR) (Lin et al., 2008). Japanese Professor<br>Akira Endo first isolated an active substance capable of inhibiting<br>cholesterol synthesis from Monascus ruber, which was termed monacolin K (Endo, 1979). MK is a transparent, white, needle-shaped<br>crystal under normal laboratory conditions, with low solubility in<br>water, but highly soluble in organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol,<br>acetone, chloroform and benzene. MK has the molecular formula<br>C24H36O5 with a molecular weight of 404.55. Under acidic conditions,<br>it adopts one of two forms, acidic or lactone. The acidic form plays a<br>role in reducing blood lipid concentration (Halpin et al., 1993).<br>RYR is recognized as a functional food, proven to be effective in<br>controlling hypercholesterolemia. The key active substance in RYR is<br>MK (Lin et al., 2008; Perez-Jimenez et al., 2018). Researchers from<br>around the world have conducted in-depth research on MK to investigate additional physiological properties that MK may have, such as<br>anti-cancer (Agarwal et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2015a,b; Klawitter et al.,<br>2010; Lin et al., 2006), neuroprotection (Divsalar et al., 2018;<br>Ghanizadeh et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2015), and anti-inflammatory and<br>antibacterial effects (Zhou et al., 2018).
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