Zizania palustris is a invasive wild rice that grows in North America, belongs to the Poaceae family.

The genus Zizania includes four species distributed between East Asia and North America:

• Zizania palustris L
• Zizania texana Hitchcock
•  Zizania aquatica L.
• Zizania latifolia (Griseb.)

It contains a wide variety of phytochemical components: saponins, anthocyanins, phenolic acids, phytosterols to which we owe some bioactivities including antioxidant, antiobesity, anti-inflammatory properties.

It is an interesting type of rice because it has a high content of gamma oryzanol, a natural mixture of esters of ferulic acid and triterpenic alcohols and sterols, which has been shown to possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and anti-hypocolesterolemic qualities (1).

Zizania palustris has the potential to protect against obesity by preventing a rise in the level of cholesterol caused by fats and therefore can be considered a natural food indicated to prevent obesity and lipotoxicity of the liver (2). A natural anti-obesity treatment.

The strategy to combat cardiovascular disease has as its primary objective a diet free of saturated fats. Atherosclerosis is one of the most common disorders due to high cholesterol levels. Zizania palustris is a food that can be considered anti-hypocolesterolemic (3).

Wild rice studies

References__________________________________________________________________________

(1) Wilson TA, Nicolosi RJ, Woolfrey D, Kritchevsky D. Rice bran oil and oryzanol reduce plasma lipid and lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations and aortic cholesterol ester accumulation to a greater extent than ferulic acid in hypercholesterolemic hamsters. J Nutr Biochem. 2007;18:105–112. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2006.03.006.

(2) Protective potentials of wild rice (Zizania latifolia (Griseb) Turcz) against obesity and lipotoxicity induced by a high-fat/cholesterol diet in rats.  Han SF, Zhang H, Zhai CK.  Food Chem Toxicol. 2012 Jul;50(7):2263-9. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2012.04.039

(3) Wild rice (Zizania palustris L.) prevents atherogenesis in LDL receptor knockout mice.  Surendiran G, Goh C, Le K, Zhao Z, Askarian F, Othman R, Nicholson T, Moghadasian P, Wang YJ, Aliani M, Shen G, Beta T, Moghadasian MH.  Atherosclerosis. 2013 Oct;230(2):284-92. doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2013.07.042.