**1. Introduction**

Throughout the history of human civilization, food has been developed to provide nutrition and sustain health. In this regard, the development of "functional foods" is gaining momentum,

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

because consumers in developing and developed countries wish to maintain better health [1]. The concept of a "functional food" originated in the 1980s in Japan, from where it migrated to Europe and the United States [2]. In general, a functional food is a modified food that improves health and well‐being beyond the effects of the nutrients it contains. Generally, foods can be made functional foods by increasing the concentration of, adding, or improving the bioavaila‐ bility of particular components. Food is considered functional when it can be established that it enhances body function or reduces the risk of diseases [3].

Functional foods have recently emerged as convenient, inexpensive and promising candidates to prevent chronic health problems. Rice bran, a byproduct of the rice milling process, is derived from the outer layer of the rice grain; it contains a number of nutrients and biologically active compounds. Rice bran is often processed using stabilization, fractionation, enzymatic treatment, or fermentation. This treated rice bran is called functional bran. The identification of the bioactive components contained in rice bran has reinforced its status as a functional food.

Experiments have revealed that enzyme‐treated or ethanol‐extracted rice bran (6% of the diet for 8 weeks) improves blood pressure (BP), the lipid profile and glucose metabolism. Further‐ more, adenosine supplementation (10 mg/kg body weight), an active component of functional bran, improved metabolic syndrome in stroke‐prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSPs) [4]. In addition, ferulic acid (FA) supplementation (9.5 mg/kg body weight), another active compound in functional bran (0.19 mg/100 g of rice bran), improves BP and the lipid profile [5]. Thus, the aim of this review was to analyze the evidence of rice bran as a functional food as well as the global interest in rice bran.
