Monascus is a solid koji made by breeding Monascus on steamed rice. Monascus water is made by mixing monascus with water and used as food colorant. This kind of bacteria mostly exists in dairy products in nature, and it can also be cultivated artificially with japonica rice as culture medium, making it a Redmi. Distributed in Hebei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Taiwan Province, Fujian, Guangdong and other places.

The morphological characteristics are as follows: the mycelium of Monascus has many branches, which is colorless at the beginning, turns red gradually and turns purple after aging; The hyphae are septate, multinucleated and contain orange-red particles. When it matures, it produces a single conidia or a bunch of conidia at the top of the branch.

Extended data:

Trait recognition

Properties of medicinal materials: Monascus is oval, cylindrical or irregular, slightly flat, 5-8mm long, 2-3.5mm wide and 1.5-3mm thick. The surface is purplish red or brownish red, uneven, and some vertical and horizontal textures are shallow.

Brittle, easy to fracture along transverse lines, uniform cross section, red to dark red edge, slightly concave in the middle, white to light red. The flavor is special, the taste is light and slightly sweet, and it is better to be red and crisp for a long time.

Baidu encyclopedia-monascus