Kombucha tea and its health benefits

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• By Maila Alexa V Malubag

Kombucha is one of the most popular beverages that is made from the fermentation process. It originated in Northeast China and spread across the world later on. This beverage is sometimes called “tea fungus” despite not having fungus involved in the process of fermentation. There have been reports that kombucha exerts medicinal effects on heart diseases and cancer. The preparation of kombucha involves a fermentation process. Its basic ingredients include yeast, sugar and black tea. This mixture is set aside for a week or more, during which a small amount of alcohol is produced with the formation of bacteria and acids in the drink. The film that forms on top of the mixture is called a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). The SCOBY is then utilised to ferment more kombucha tea. As kombucha tea is yet to be discovered by many, isolation and identification of the microbial colonies formed will pave the way for more studies that could further expand knowledge about kombucha tea. Moreover, intense studies on kombucha SCOBY would pave the way for its employment as it is a suitable raw material in many fields, such as food technology, biomaterial preparation, fashion and textile industries, environmental biotechnology, etc.

Keywords: Kombucha tea, SCOBY, Symbiotic relationship, Fermented beverage

Image source:
Photo by Klara Avsenik on Unsplash, available under Unsplash License at https://unsplash.com/photos/5cFqO92t7pM

Citation:
Maila Alexa V Malubag. Kombucha tea and its health benefits . The Torch. 2022. 3 (1).
Available from: https://www.styvalley.com/pub/magazines/torch/read/kombucha-tea-and-its-health-benefits /.

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