International Rice Research

1.1    Background and problem statements

Rice is known as one of the major foods consumed by many populations across the globe for its source of carbohydrates. Rice originate from the seed of the monocotyledonous plant Oryza sativa L. (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima Steud. (African rice). They can be found in more than 100 countries around the world. As reported, about 2 billion people obtain 75% of their daily calorie consumption by taking rice, especially in Asian countries (Park, Lee, & Choi, 2017). Based on a research, rice plays an important role in terms of relationship between nutrition and health. Several compounds were identified in rice such as phenolic, tocopherols, tocotrienols, β-carotene, and y-oryzanol (Rigo, Pohlmann, Guterres, & Ruver Beck, 2014; Walter & Marchesan, 2011). 

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On the other hand, the beneficial compounds are not only can be found in the rice itself but also in the bran. A study revealed that valuable nutrition mostly is found in the germ and bran which has been removed during the milling process. Major product obtained is the rice endosperm (70%) while the rest are the husk (20%), rice bran (8%) and rice germ (2%) as the by-product (Sharma, Srivastava, & Saxena, 2015). The figure below shows the rice kernel anatomy. (Park et al., 2017)

The bran is a multilayered structure composed of pericarp, nucellus, seed coat and aleurone which are the outer coat of rice endosperm. When rice bran is obtained as the by-product, there are still some fractions of rice endosperm, rice germ and aleurone layer which are rich in proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, and trace mineral (Sharma et al., 2015). Rice bran contains phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese and other trace elements (Saikia & Deka, 2011). Presence of antioxidants like tocopherols, tocotrienols and γ- oryzanol also brighten prospects of rice bran utilization for humans as functional ingredient to mitigate the life-threatening disorders (Sharif, Butt, Anjum, & Khan, 2014). Moreover, rice bran also contains 20% oil, 15% protein, 50% carbohydrates, dietary fiber such as pectin, beta-glucan and gum (Sharma et al., 2015).

Besides rice bran, the husk also contains varieties of beneficial nutrients. In a recent study, it was found that rice husk contains phenolic, flavonoid and some antioxidant and antiproliferative activities. Approximately, over 148 million tons of husks were produced, correlating to 20% of grain weight. Due to their rigid and bulky structure, rice husk has limited demand and was treated by burying them underground or burned which only cause harm to our environment. Recently, research on deriving bioactive phytochemicals due to its protection against oxidative damage has been conducted. Reports indicate that phenolic compound become the main factor of antioxidant capacity. On top of that, it was found that phenolic compounds were capable to slow down the growth of tumor cell lines from human cancer (Gao et al., 2018).

1.2 Problem Statement

The Sarawak State of Malaysia is known as the treasure of many rice varieties abundancy such as Bario, Bajong, Rotan, Boria, Udang Halus and many more. In Sarawak alone, there are more than 100 different rice varieties that are sold in local markets (Tan, 2015). However, the knowledge about nutrient content and potential of these rice varieties are still underestimated. To meet our norm, we consume rice in the form of polished and refined white grains. Therefore, after harvesting season and milling process, the rice waste will be discarded and used to feed the animal. Some of them are even burned which only led to air pollution. 

As Sarawak is rich in rice biodiversity, the hidden potential of the local rice cultivars is yet to be discovered. Nonetheless, the characterization of genetic information on the rice cultivars in Sarawak is still lacking. Therefore, researchers are interested in discovering the potential of rice bran in order to optimize the waste itself. However, there are still less publication on the Sarawak’s rice. 

1.3   Significance of the study

The plant chosen for this study in this project is Oryza sativa L., where there will be more focus on the study of the rice bran. There is still no publications on the study of this plant, particularly from the Sarawak region. So, there are the potentials to discover and elucidate the compounds through this project. This project can increase the awareness and knowledge about the phytochemical component that can be found in rice bran of paddy rice from Sarawak as well to learn its antioxidant and antibacterial activity. 

The results obtained from this study can help with understanding the importance of bran that commonly assumed as waste on how it actually can benefit in terms of providing important nutrients and as additional data that contributes to the significance of the phytochemical study. Furthermore, the data also matter for future study in the development of Medicinal, Health and Pharmaceutical products.



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