Purple Rice Bran Extract Attenuates Aflatoxin B1-Induced Initiation stage of Hepatocarcinogenesis

The rice bran or outer layer of the rice grain contains a number of micronutrients and valuable phytochemicals. Several studies have shown that pigmented rice bran contains higher amounts of beneficial phytochemicals such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, tocopherols, tocotrienols, γ-oryzanol, phytic acid, free fatty acids and methyl ester derivatives (Leardkamolkarn et al., 2011; Jun et al., 2012; Goufo and Trindade, 2014) than colorless rice bran. Colored rice bran also has numerous biological and pharmacological properties (Choi et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2011; Jang et al., 2012) including anti-cancer activity. Brown rice bran prevented dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer in rats (Li et al., 2011), and red and purple rice brans inhibited human cancer cell growth through the action of phenolic, anthocyanin, and proanthocyanidin constituents (Chen et al., 2012; Pintha et al., 2014). Hepatocellular carcinoma is considered to be a top rank cancer in developing countries. Although viral hepatitis B and C infections seem to be a pivotal cause of human liver cancer in Asian countries, this could be controlled by vaccination. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) produced by Aspergillus