Comply with the higher living standard, ？HH？H？？overnutrition？HH？HH is a growing problem in Taiwan. Variety of healthy foods consisted of Red Yeast Rice are jumping on the market and have become the hot products for those who want to lower fat. In recent years, it has been proved that the major active constituent in Red Yeast Rice is lovastatin, which is clinically as a prescribed drug for lowering cholesterol. Lovastatine is largely hydrolyzed into lovastatin acid after oral dosing, and both constituents are then substantially metabolized by CYP3A4 in the intestine or liver. The coadministration of CYP3A4 inhibitors may markedly increase blood concentrations of lovastatine and lovastatin acid and thus might result in side effect like rhabdomyolysis. This study attempts to develop methods for the determination of lovastatin and lovastatin acid in Red Yeast Rice and in serum. In addition, the effect of erythromycin on the absorption and disposition of lovastatin and lovastatin acid in rats after coadministration with Red Yeast Rice will be investigated. The pharmacokinetic parameters of lovastatin and and lovastatin acid will be calculated using WINNONLIN. Paired Student？HH？HHs t- test will be used for the statistical analysis. The result could provide information for drug-health food interaction.
