Monascus pigments are a traditional natural food colorant in China and Japan (Hosono et al., 1977; Su and Huang, 1980). They are a mixture of yellow (monascin, ankaflavin), orange-red (rubropunctatin, monascorubrin) and red-purple (rubropunctamine, monascorubramine) compounds which can be produced by submerged and solid state fermentation using free and immobilized cultures (Su and Huang, 1980; Lin and Hzuka, 1982; Evans and Wang, 1984; Mak et al., 1990; Johns and Stuart, 1991; Chiu and Chan, 1992). We have previously found that addition of corn oil to the cultivation medium doubled