ABSTRACT
Aims@#Brewer’s rice is one of the by-products from rice processing industry that is rich in bioactive compounds but currently underutilized. Exploitation of agro-industrial by-products as substrates in solid-state fermentation processes provides value-addition to these underutilized by-products. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potentiality of brewer’s rice as a source of cosmeceutical or cosmetic bio-ingredient by utilizing solid-state fermentation process. @*Methodology and results@#Brewer’s rice was submitted to solid-state fermentation with Aspergillus oryzae from MARDI’s Collection of Functional Food Culture (CFFC). Extracts of unfermented and fermented brewer’s rice were later subjected to determination of biological content and biological activities, as well as measurement of their phenolic and organic acids content. The extract of fermented brewer’s rice exhibited an increase in total phenolic and total flavonoid content and showed enhanced 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging and ferric-reducing activities. Additionally, it was also found that the tyrosinase and elastase inhibition activities of fermented brewer’s rice extract is significantly higher with nearly 7- and 57-fold, respectively, than the unfermented extract. Ferulic and kojic acid – two of the most important compounds in cosmeceutical formulations, were also detected in fermented brewer’s rice extract. @*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#Antioxidant, anti-pigmentation and anti-wrinkle properties of brewer’s rice were successfully enhanced by fermentation with A. oryzae. Fermented brewer’s rice extract has high potential to be developed as functional bio-ingredient for cosmeceutical as well as nutraceutical products.