Bran is rice mill waste that its existence is abundant in Indonesia. However, it has yet to be utilized optimally. On the other hand, bran has many benefits for the health, one of them is reducing the cholesterol level.
In the research which is conducted by several health nutrient students from Faculty of Medicine UGM, it is known that the rice bran can reduce the cholesterol level in the blood. They make an innovation of rice bran processing into fermented bran extract named as BEAR-CHOL.
“The utilization of rice bran is still limited which is only used for animal feed and it is often thrown away. In fact, rice bran is rich in dietary fiber and various micro components that can reduce the cholesterol level in the body,” said Bira Arumndari Nurahma on Tuesday (8/8) at Faculty of Medicine UGM.
Therefore, Bira and her colleagues who are Mega Febia Suryajayanti, Anggi Laksmita Dewi, and Zunamilla Khairia conducted an advanced research on the fermented bran potential as an anti-hypercholesterolemia and as a rice processing alternative product for health.
Bira said the high cholesterol level in the body can cause a serious cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the utilization of rice bran is expected to contribute to decreasing the number of mortality due to cardiovascular disease.
BEAR-CHOL has more efficacies because it has been processed through fermentation. The BEAR-CHOL extract has been tested on hypercholesterolemic rats to look at the lipid profile and the Short Chain Fatty Acid (SCFA) level.
“The result is BEAR-CHOL can repair the lipid profile of the rats which are induced by hypercholesterolemia,” she added.
The provision of fermented bran extract with a dose of 2205 mg/kgBB to the rats can prevent the increase of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Moreover, it also can decrease the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the hypercholesterolemia condition that is close to healthy condition.
“After this, we will analyze the SCFA level of the hypercholesterolemic rats which consumed the BEAR-CHOL,” said Bira.