“…Monascus pigments, belonging to polyketide compounds, have been shown to be toxic to various human cancer cells, suggesting that they are natural non-toxic antitumor agents with great potential in the development of new chemotherapeutic treatments. [1][2][3][4][5] Additionally, our previous study demonstrated that rubropunctatin showed a higher anti-proliferative effect than other pigments on BGC-823 cells. 6 Furthermore, the inductive effect of apoptosis can be boosted by light irradiation, suggesting that rubropunctatin is a promising natural dual anticancer agent for photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy.…”