Researchers have identified bioactive compounds in pre-germinated brown rice which may be responsible for its claimed health benefits in cognitive function and as an anti-diabetes.

In order to identify the bioactive compounds in the rice, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and FANCL Research Institute at the FANCL Corporation in Yokohama used by silica gel column chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques.

This enabled the researchers, led by Robert Yu, to identify the bioactives as ASGs, a diverse family of molecules that consists of a glucose derivative, fatty acids, and sterols. The compounds were concentrated in the rice bran (outer layer) and not the seed, so they would not be found in white rice, they reported.

Further tests also indicated that the ASGs from pre-germinated brown rice also activated two enzymes related to diabetes, homocysteine-thiolactonase (HTase) and Na+/K+ ATPase, which may possibly account for its anti-diabetic properties.