**3. Conclusions and perspectives**

Brown rice and rice bran contains many kinds of biologically active components and their beneficial effects against diseased conditions have been demonstrated. "Brown rice and rice bran fermented with *Aspergillus oryzae* (FBRA)" is a processed food in which free vitamins and phenolic compounds have increased during *A. oryzae*-mediated fermentation. Dietary administration of FBRA showed antitumorigenic and anti-metastatic effects in various tumor model animals, and anti-inflammatory effects in rat hepatitis, rat colitis, and inflammation-mediated rodent tumor models. Based on these previous findings of FBRA, considering antidiabetic components in brown rice, we examined suppressive effects of FBRA on autoimmune-mediated type 1 diabetes. In non-obese diabetic (NOD) female mice, dietary administration of 0.5% FBRA delayed the spontaneous onset of diabetes and significantly reduced the insulitis score [36]. While relation of the rice variety and these anti-disease activities was not investigated, phytochemical profile is varied among different kinds of rice [2–4].

Brown rice and fermented brown rice showed very attractive beneficial functions in *in vitro* and *in vivo* studies. However, for clinical application of FBRA, its action mechanisms including determination of active ingredients and its optimal dose should be clarified in future studies.

## **Acknowledgements**

Keiko Kataoka received financial support for FBRA relating research (Ref No. 55, 58, 59, 60) from Genmai Koso Co. Ltd. (Japan), and was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15 K00820. These studies were also technically supported by Support Center for Advanced Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University.
