LAUSR

Abstract Rice-derived bioactive compounds are now widely used as active ingredients in health foods, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical products and as food additives. Polyphenolic compounds, gamma oryzanol, and vitamin E are among the bioactive constituents in rice that have important antioxidant, anti-aging, and anti-pigmentation properties among others. In this present study, broken rice was subjected to solid-state fermentation for 20 days by using two types of fungi, Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus oligosporus. Cosmeceutical-related functionalities of the fermented broken rice extracts were tested by evaluating antioxidant activities as well as tyrosinase and elastase inhibition activities. Total phenolic content and total flavonoid content of fermented broken rice extracts were also measured. Fermentation caused a substantial increase in the total phenolic and flavonoid content of broken rice. Ferric-reducing antioxidant activity was the highest (18.47 mM FE(II)/g sample) in broken rice fermented with R. oligosporus on day 20. Fermentation of broken rice with the same fungus resulted in higher DPPH radical-scavenging antioxidant activity than A. niger, with the highest activity recorded was 94.17%. Broken rice fermented with R. oligosporus for 20 days had the highest tyrosinase and elastase inhibition activities with the value of 46% and 51.9%, respectively. The results demonstrate that the fermentation process increased the biological activities and the numbers of bioactive compounds for potential use in the cosmeceutical industry. This undervalued by-product of the rice milling industry can effectively be used for the production of high value products through fungal solid-state fermentation.