Abstract:Lipid-lowering red yeast rice is a valuable medicine and food homologous fermentation product in China.Its koji strain，Monascus，could produce a secondary metabolite Monacolin K with lipid-lowering activity during the fermentation process.The development history of lipid-lowering red yeast，the main components of red yeast fermentation，the biosynthesis of Monacolin K and the fermentation process of lipidlowering red yeast had been explored in detail，and the future development direction of lipid-lowering red yeast was proposed.The aim was to provide a reference for the effective improvement of Monacolin K production of red yeast fermentation.