Black rice, the staple food for one-third of the world population seems to be extremely beneficial in the health zone. A recent research asserts that black rice helps fight inflammation occurring in allergies, asthma, and other diseases. Bran is the outer husk of the grain that gets excluded while processing brown rice into white rice.
Experiments in cell cultures suggested that black rice bran curbs the release of histamine, which causes inflammation. In the current research, effects of black rice bran extract on skin inflammation in laboratory mice were tested. Mice injected with the extract possibly had a decline in skin inflammation by almost 32 percent than control animals. Also the production of substances known to promote inflammation was supposedly suppressed in mice injected with the black rice bran.
When mice were injected with brown rice bran extract, similar results did not appear. Mendel Friedman and colleagues fed the mice with a diet consisting of 10 percent black rice bran. A decrease in swelling probably linked with allergic contact dermatitis, a common type of skin irritation was observed. Having been characterized as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic food ingredient, black rice bran may be a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of chronic inflammation related diseases.
The research is published in ACS’ bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.