The high-profile 4th International Conference on Rice Bran Oil 2017 (ICRBO 2017) was held in Thailand on August 25, where representatives from multiple international organizations and countries gathered in Bangkok. Marshall Dr. Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, Dr. Rabi Rasaily, the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Li Duo, a nutritionist of the World Health Organization (WHO), etc. gave speeches, and over 150 experts and scholars from over 20 countries including China, Japan, the U.S., India and Thailand, etc. discussed on the research and applications of rice bran oil in pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, nutraceuticals and foods. This conference also invited over 30 rice bran oil enterprise representatives and R&D institutions from different countries. Arawana, the only invited enterprise of China, and Wilmar Global R&D Center (both as relevant representatives) launched an initiative with the International Association of Rice Bran Oil (IARBO), Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, representative of FAO, and expert of WHO, etc. to advocate for use of the rice bran oil containing oryzanol, together with 150 experts worldwide.
With low intake of oryzanol, Asia faces many health challenges
Experts in this conference emphasized to different degrees the close correlation between the rice bran oil and Asian health problems. Due to the unhealthy lifestyles, Asia faces many health challenges, the sub-health state caused by great stress, Triple H (hypertension, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia), insomnia and fatiguability is popular in Asian cities, and chronic diseases including diabetes and hypertension, etc. have also entered the high-incidence period. The WHO released the Global Report on Diabetes for the first time in 2016, according to which, there were about 110 million diabetes patients in China alone, accounting for 1/10 of the total adults, and the number is expected to increase to 150 million in 2040; the diabetes patients had exceeded 65 million in India. Li Duo, a member of the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group, held that many diseases were associated with the fact that the modern food processing and diet of people are over refined, and most nutrition of cereals is lost, leading to low intake of oryzanol.
An Indian expert who studies relevant problems in the U.S., said, "If the Asian-Pacific region does not pay attention, the health of Asian people will be more worrying in the future." This viewpoint was generally accepted by the over 150 experts in the conference.
An Asian way to meet the sub-health challenge is to eat the rice bran oil containing oryzanol
In the face of the health challenges of Asia, global experts coincidentally proposed to seek wisdom from the 5,000-year Chinese tradition, and look for strategy from food and medicine homology.
"Dietotherapy is fundamental to the traditional Chinese medicine. A sound strategy to meet the challenge is to improve the lifestyle, adjust the diet structure, and eat rice bran oil and supplement oryzanol every day."
According to the experts, the rice bran oil contains rich active nutrition of grains, including many physiological activators such as oryzanol, phytosterol and vitamin E, and was recommended as one of the three healthy edible oils by WHO. The oryzanol is mainly extracted from the rice bran oil, has been clinically proved to be able to improve the vegetative nerve function and endocrine dyscrasia, lower blood lipids, resist oxidation and senescence, and function as de-stressing and sleep aiding, and is very important to human health. The global rising trend of the scale of oryzanol used in drugs in recent years has reflected people's increasingly higher demand for it. Eating the rice bran oil containing oryzanol can improve the diet structure and meet the health challenges, being an "Asian way" tailored for Asians.
Prasert Setwipattanachai, President of IARBO, said in the conference that the vigorous development of rice bran oil and supplementation of oryzanol could contribute to the health of Asian people and even all humanity. There is big research space in the value and application of the rice bran oil; rice or rice bran oil is used as the raw material in the pharmaceutical products, health products, foods and cosmetics, such as oryzanol, vitamin E, lotions, and antioxidant and anti-aging nutraceuticals.
Japan is considered as a country excellent in oriental diet structure among the Asian countries, and is the country earliest in popularizing rice bran oil: Japan proposed the initiative of supplementing oryzanol and vitamin B1 from rice bran oil in 1917, and vigorously popularized the daily consumption of rice bran oil containing oryzanol on the initiative of the government, which was a move to meet the national health challenge, just like the Chinese government's proposing of universal salt iodization in 1995 to respond to and contain students' goiter prevalence.
Teruo Miyazawa, a professor of nutrition at the Tohoku University of Japan, told the reporter that 40% nutritious lunches of primary and secondary schools in Japan used rice bran oil as the cooking oil, and the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare designated rice bran oil as the oil for the nutritious meals of Japanese primary and secondary school students. "The grain nutrition is very important to the growth and development of children, especially, the growth of children aged 7-14 needs strengthening supplementation of vitamin E and oryzanol. Rice bran oil contains those nutrients, and has a very good antioxidant capacity. And its taste is quite in line with the light-based Japanese dietary habit. I advocate other Asian countries to eat more rice bran oil containing oryzanol."
China is at the forefront of rice bran oil R&D and industry innovation, and Arawana becomes the leader
Consuming the rice bran oil can improve health, and developing the rice bran oil is of great significance to increasing self-sufficiency rate of edible oil of Asian countries, boosting Asian countries' world position in the grain and oil field, and guaranteeing the edible oil supply security. Asia is the most important consuming region of edible oil, but it has the common problem of oil shortage due to the limited cultivated area, especially in China, a major consumer of edible oil where the sunflower oil and soybean oil, etc. mainly depend on import. The awkward situation of shortage of oils in the country would be effectively solved without the competition for land with fertile farmland, if the rice industry could be deeply developed.
Marshall Dr. Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, said in the speech that the Thai government highly valued and supported the development of the rice bran oil industry; this industry was of great significance to alleviating the Asian food security issue and was worthy of attention of every country.
The global experts' attention to Asian health and advocacy of edible rice bran oil coincided with the ideal of the Chinese enterprise Arawana which, as a forerunner in technological innovation in the grain and oil industry of China, threw itself into the R&D of rice bran oil in as early as 2006. Arawana, the only invited Chinese grain and oil enterprise in this conference, brought the "double-10,000" rice bran oil to this conference to show the product innovation, which increases the average content of both the oryzanol and phytosterol to 10,000ppm at the same time, and successfully solves the worldwide problem of how to naturally retain the nutritive essence of rice bran oil in the processing while well attaining good taste, color and quality. According to information, this product won the "Quality Award of International Rice Bran Oil" in the 3rd International Conference on Rice Bran Oil in 2016 in Tokyo, Japan, and it was also a focus of the media and experts in the conference in Thailand this year.
In the meantime, in terms of industry pattern exploration, the rice circular economy industry pattern first developed by Arawana has realized the transformation from the traditional extensive rice processing model to intensive processing model, successfully built the eco-circulating economy of the whole rice industry chain, and achieved the "least waste of useful materials" of each piece of rice. According to information, such pattern is expected to be promoted into a pattern that can be practiced and replicated in China, which will play the leading and demonstration role in the grain and oil industry transformation and upgrading of Asia and even the world.
Dr. Rabi Rasaily, the representative of FAO, called on Asians to eat more healthy rice bran oil, and highly affirmed China's "double-10,000" rice bran oil and the rice circular economy pattern initiated by it: "It is a responsibility and an obligation of Asia to develop good rice bran oil. Learning and publicizing relevant experience of the Chinese enterprises will be very helpful to promoting Asian rice processing and the sustainable development of the rice bran oil industry."
