Yellowed rice

[1] In the aftermath of World War II, Japan was forced to import approximately 1 million pounds of rice from various countries.

This led to a team of six researchers—Yoshito Kobayashi, K. Uraguchi, Masashi Miyake, Mamoru Saito, Takashi Tatsuno, and Makoto Enomoto—to pool resources in order to study this new type of yellow rice.

Both Tatsuno and Shingo Marumo of Nagoya University proposed chemical structures for this elusive mycotoxin and upon further discussion, it was found that the two researchers had, in fact, discovered the same compound and subsequently named it cyclochlorotine (islanditoxin).

[3] In order to test the effects of the Islandia Yellow Rice, a study was conducted at the University of Tokyo by the researchers Kobayashi, Uraguchi, Miyake, Saito, Tatsuno, and Enomoto.

[4] Due to the high rates of citrinin found in rice, it was recommended to the Japanese government by the National Institute of Health of Japan that grain with greater that 1% contamination of P. citrinum should not be sold.

[2] The lack of regulation of citrinin may also be due to the fact that while studies have shown that it does act as a nephrotoxic and hepatotoxic agent, it is less toxic than other mycotoxins such as aflatoxin and ochratoxin.

[5] Despite the lack of international regulation on mycotoxins in rice, the contamination scare following World War II did influence Japan's food safety guidelines.

The collaborative investigations that followed the discoveries of each of the three yellow rice strains resulted in the founding of the Japanese Association for Mycotoxicology in 1973.