Black Rice Bran May Benefit Inflammation

As a skin care professional, it’s important that I stay up to date on the latest skin care ingredients, even obscure ones like black rice bran.

Rice is a common starch served at our house, so it’s interesting to note that it may have applications in skin care. A study published in the bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows that black rice bran may help soothe the inflammation involved in allergies, asthma and other diseases.

Previous research showed several potential health benefits of eating black rice bran. Bran is the outer husk of the grain, which is removed during the processing of brown rice to produce the familiar white rice. Experimentation with cell cultures indicated that black rice bran suppressed the release of histamine, which causes inflammation.

In the new study, researchers tested the effects of black rice bran extract on skin inflammation in laboratory mice. Injections of rice bran extract  reduced skin inflammation in the mice by about 32% compared to control animals.  A decrease was also noticed in the production of certain substances known to promote inflammation. (The effects were not observed with brown rice bran extract.) A diet fed to the mouse population containing 10% black rice bran reduced swelling associated with allergic contact dermatitis, a common type of skin irritation.

Scientists concluded that black rice bran has potential value as an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic food ingredient and possibly also as a therapeutic agent for the treatment and prevention of diseases associated with chronic inflammation. You may be seeing it in skin care products soon.