Rice bran oil (RBO) is not a popular oil worldwide, but its demand is increasing due to its popularity as a “healthy oil” in Asian countries, particularly in Japan, Korea, India, China, and Indonesia. RBO is an excellent cooking oil and salad oil due to its high smoke point and delicate flavor. It is unique among edible oils due to its rich source of commercially and nutritionally important phytoceuticals such as oryzanol, lecithin, squalene, phytosterols, polyphenols, tocopherols, tocotrienols, and many more. Many studies on humans and animals have shown that RBO is as effective as some other vegetable oils that are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids in lowering plasma cholesterol levels and lipoprotein profiles. In some cases, RBO was found to lower plasma cholesterol more effectively, and this effect can be attributed to the occurrence of these other specific components in RBO. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the phytonutrients from RBO that have shown promising disease-preventing and health-related benefits in experimental research studies.

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Nutritional studies of rice bran oil

Rice bran oil (RBO) has many unique characteristics that result in broad applications in areas including food, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, industries, etc. In its cooking and deep-frying aspects, RBO exhibits a novel frying stability and charming flavor when heated. In its nutrition aspect, RBO has a balanced fatty acid composition and high levels of functional ingredients. In Japan, about 40% of kindergartens, nurseries, elementary, and middle schools use RBO for cooking during lunch and dinner meals. In the pharmaceutical area, it has been demonstrated to have positive effects on modulation of cholesterol, hypertension, hyperglycemia, insomnia, and other chronic diseases. In its cosmetic applications, nanoemulsions of RBO could improve the physical stability and moisturizing activity on skin. Tocotrienols in RBO stabilize the free radicals generated in the skin when exposed to oxidative rays. In addition, there are valuable byproducts in RBO processing, and RBO is a good alternative material for biodiesel in industrial applications.

Applications of Rice Bran Oil

Rice bran oil (RBO) is a very good source of several micronutrients and natural antioxidants such as γ-oryzanol, sterols, tocopherols, tocotrienols, phospholipids, phytosterols, and squalene. These micronutrients are the bioactive components in RBO, concentrated mainly in the unsaponifiable fraction of the oil. They are often lost to a large degree in the refining process and concentrated in a number of byproducts/residues such as gum and soap stock, deodorizer distillate, and wax from both physical and chemical refining process. RBO producers have paid attention to the recovery of these micronutrients by either avoiding its loss into the byproducts or extracting it from the byproducts for further applications in food, medicinal, pharmaceutical, or cosmetic industries. Several methods such as solvent extraction and crystallization, supercritical fluid extraction, saponification, esterification, and molecular distillation are used for their recovery. In this chapter, the various micronutrients, structure, properties, extraction, and utilization are discussed.

Micronutrients in Rice Bran Oil

Protein, hydrophobic nature, and glycan profile of sugar beet pectin influence emulsifying activity

Rice bran oil (RBO) is popular in several countries such as Japan, India, Korea, China and Indonesia as a cooking oil. It has been shown that RBO is an excellent cooking and salad oil due to its high smoke point and delicate flavor. The nutritional qualities and health effects of rice bran oil are also established. RBO is rich in unsaponifiable fraction, which contains the micronutrients like vitamin E complexes, gamma oryzanol, phytosterols, polyphenols and squalene. It is high in antioxidants namely oryzanol, tocotrienol, tocopherol and squalene with some amount of omega 3 fats. WHO, NIN and ICMR have recommended a near equal ratio of SFA( 27-33%); MUFA( 33-40%); PUFA(27-33%) in a healthy oil. Rice Bran oil is closest to this recommendation having SFA (24%); MUFA (42%); PUFA (34%). Therefore, in recent years, research interest has been growing in RBO processing to obtain good quality oil with low refining loss.

Vikas Pali

Papers

Rice bran oil- Unique gift of nature: A review