Table 2.
Biological effects of brown rice (BR) and germinated brown rice (GBR)

Biological effects	Subjects	Dietary source	Main changes in metabolic indices	References
Anti-diabetic	Streptosotocin-induced diabetic male rats	WR, GBR	↓ Blood glucose levels, lipid peroxide	Hagiwara et al., 2004
	Streptosotocin-induced diabetic rats	WR, BR, GBR	↓Blood glucose levels, serum homocysteine levels	Usuki et al., 2007
			↑NCV, Na+/K+-ATPase activity
	Healthy subject	WR, BR, GBR	↓GI, IAUC-Glc	Ito et al., 2005
Hypocholesterolemic	Hypercholesterolemic rats	High fat diet +WR, BR, GBR	↓Weight	Imam et al., 2014
			↑ox-LDL, F2-isoprostane
	Hypercholesterolemic male	BR, GBR	↓Liver, kidney, lung weights, TBARS levels in plasma, liver, heart, kidney lung, plasma GOT and GPT levels	Lee et al., 2007
	Hypercholesterolemia-Induced rabbits	High cholesterol diet + WR, BR, GBR	↓TC, LDL/HDL, AI, MDA	Esa et al., 2011
			↑HDL
	Hyperlipidaemia rabbits	High cholesterol diet + WR, BR, GBR	↓ALT, AST	Esa et al., 2013
Anti-obesity	Hypercholesterolemia-induced male rats	High fat and cholesterol diet +WR, BR, GBR	↓Weight, epididymal and kidney fat, cholesterol	Choi et al., 2006
			↑Fecal excretion of Ch, lipid, TG
Hypotensive	Spontaneously hypertensive rats	BR, GBR	↓FER, blood pressure and TG	Choi et al., 2006
Maternal mental health and immunity	Healthy mother	WR, GBR	↓ TMD	Sakamoto et al., 2007
			↑ Ig-A
Anti-cancer	Azoxymethane-induced colon cancer male rats	Commercial diet + GBR	↓β-catenin and COX-2 expression	Latifah et al., 2010

WR, white rice; BR, brown rice; GBR, germinated brown rice; NCV, Motor-nerve conductuin velocity; GI, glycemic index; IAUC-Glc, incremental areas under the glucose; ox-LDL, plasma oxidized low-density lipoprotein; TBARS, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances; GOT, glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase; GPT, glutamic pyruvic transaminase; TC, total cholesterol; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; MDA, malondialdehyde; ALT, lipid peroxidation levels, alanine transferase; AST, aspartate transaminase; Ch, cholesterol; TG, triglyceride; FER, food efficiency ratio; TMD, total mood disturbance; Ig-A, Immunoglobulin A; COX-2, cyclooxygenase 2