Monascus, also known as Red Qu, Danqu, Redmi, Fuqu, etc. First discovered in China, it has a history of more than 1000 years of production and application, and it is a unique traditional rice fermentation product in China and neighboring countries.

In the Chinese medicine culture that has been passed down for thousands of years, red koji has a long history of use and has been included in herbal medicines in past dynasties.

Ray Wu's Daily Materia Medica of the Yuan Dynasty records: "Red koji makes wine, breaking the blood and making drugs"; Hu Sihui said in "Eating and Drinking" that red yeast "strengthens the spleen, benefits qi and warms the middle"; "Compendium of Materia Medica" also records: "Monascus is mainly used to promote digestion and blood circulation, strengthen the spleen and dry the stomach. Treat women's bloody pain and postpartum blood. "

In 1970s, Japanese scholars isolated Monacolin K, a physiologically active substance with the function of regulating blood lipid, from monascus, which set off an upsurge of research on monascus and has achieved remarkable results so far.

After half a century's research, nearly 80 kinds of metabolites were isolated from different monascus fermentation products, which showed a variety of biological activities. Many kinds of compounds such as statins and monascus pigments showed important research and application value.