RICE BRAN OIL: ITS THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL

Department of Food Science and Technology, National institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management. Kundli, Haryana, India Dcparlmcnl of BNT, Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Banur. Punjab. India

ABSTRACT
Rice bran oil (RBO), a unique cooking oil is produced from the pericarp and germ of Oryza saliva seeds. The chemical composition of RBO is similar to groundnut oil (GNO), however, high content of unsaponifiables. contrast to other relined vegetable oils makes the oil worth exploiting its therapeutic potential. With the advent of Nutrition Transiiion”. in industrialized world, there has been explosion of consumer interest in the active role of underutilized natural foods in the well being and longevity as well as prevention of degenerative diseases. The review gives a brief account of the composition, bioactive components, their biochemical roles and therapeutic characteristics. An attempt has been made
to include the available literature on the effectiveness of RBO and its phytochemicals in the management of chronic diseases.
KEYWORDS: Rice Bran Oil, Hypolipidemic, Hypocholesterolemic; oxidative stress, Oryzanol, Tocotrienols
INTRODUCTION
Rice bran oil (RBO), a unique cooking oil iss produced from the pericarp and germ of Oryza saliva seeds.It constitutes about 10% of rough rice grain and contains Ui-22% oil. Ii is the only oil which, besides having balanced fatty acid composition and ideal PUFA/SFA and fair linoleic acid (LA)/ a-linoleic acid (ALNA) ratio (Ghafoorunissa. 1994). contains three categories of natural antioxidants i.c. tocopherols, tocopherols and oryzanol. High content of these antioxidants impart higher oxidative stability and longer shelf life as compared to other edible oils (Raghuram and Rukmini, 1995)

RBO has been used as edible oil in Japan for over mo decades and is popularly known as “Heart Oil” in Japan. In recent years. U.S. scientists have also shown a tremendous interest in cholesterol lowering properties of RBO and this oil has acquired the slatus of ‘Health food’ there as well. Since India ranks tlrst in the annual production of crude RBO (5(K),000 tonnes) and refined RBO (>400,(H)0 tonnes) (Gopalkrishna ct al., 2006), the possibility of exploiting rice bran as a source of edible oil has come into greater focus in our country in recent years and the nutritional composition, toxicological safety and hypolipidemic action of RBO have been studied with interest.

The oil is pale yellow, limpid (at 20BC) and odourless wilh an acid index of <0.50, density al 20″C between 0.92 and 0.93, refractive index at 20( ‘C between 1.47 and 1.47 and smoke point >2004C and has a pleasant lightly sweet flavour (C’iccro and Gaddi, 2001).

COMPOSITION

The chemical composition of RBO is very close to that of groundnut oil (GNO). It has high unsaponifiable fraction (1.5-2.6%) in contrast lo other refined vegetable oils that contains only 0.3-0.9% (Rong ct al.» 1997). It contains oleic acid (38.4%) as 2-olcacc. linolcic acid (34.4%) and a-linolenic acid (2.2%) as unsaturated fauy acid and palmitic