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| It has long been reported that a natural constituent of Kombucha is ‘glucuronic acid’, to which researchers attributed much of the beneficial effects of the beverage (which I tended to attribute to Camellia sinensis tea in which it is brewed). More recently, Michael Roussin [www.kombucha-research.com], claiming personal exhaustive analysis of hundreds of specimens has disputed the presence of glucuronic acid in Kombucha and the heretofore popular notion of glucuronic acid conjugation of toxins and suggested that in the apparent absence of glucuronic acid, another candidate, ‘Saccharic acid 1,4-lactone’, might be responsible for the beneficial effects usually attributed to glucuronic acid. This dispute is far from final and much work still needs to be done. My position (Stuart Thomson) [www.gaiaresearch.co.za] is that whilst I welcome debate in pursuit of knowledge on the subject, I shall continue to report the presence of glucuronic acid as a constituent of Kombucha as long as respectable researchers continue to report its presence in Kombucha in peer-reviewed journals, or until they alter their position in the light of any possible future evidence to the contrary, which is the practice of science (in the absence of vested financial interests to resist accurate reporting or revision of the known facts and which latter scenario does not appear to prevail here, where early correction of error remains the only sensible course to preserve one’s professional reputation and ego). As can be discerned
from my collated summary abstracts below, Roussin’s position,
although widely blindly reported, does not currently hold up against
continuing reports to the contrary. In particular, Eastern Block
and allied researchers appear to be grouping and reiterating their
position that glucuronic acid is indeed an active beneficial constituent
of Kombucha, which holds great promise for socialist and developing
countries where far less financial resources are available to treat
e.g. increasingly drug-resistant infectious diseases such as DR
& XDR strains of Tuberculosis, which are less common and less
developmentally lucrative propositions in better resourced, developed
countries (Personal Communication,
May 2007, with Dr Anita Segal, Microbiological Chief, Cantacuzino
Institute, Bucharest Romania, from 1952 –1956, whilst personally
confirming the acidic therapeutic properties produced by Kombucha
metabolic activity). |
| Researchers at the ‘Department
of Biochemical Engineering and Food, National Institute of Applied
Sciences, Toulouse, France’, using high-performance
liquid chromatography (ION 300 Interaction Column, H2SO4 0.5mm
as mobile phase, room temp, UV detection) determined that when Kombucha
tea fungus culture micro-organisms
were cultured in their traditional medium, several metabolites
were identified and quantified:
lactic, acetic and gluconic acids and at low levels, glucuronic
acid (<10mg/l).
(Blanc P, ‘Characterization of the tea fungus metabolites’, Biotechnol Lett, 18(2), 1996) To access this document please click here |
|
Researchers
at the ‘Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Technology,
University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia’ studied the influence
of concentrations of sucrose in a Kombucha
tea fungus culture, which produced
glucuronic acid
beside some other organic acids. The content of
glucuronic acid continuously increased
and maximum production was reached after 7-days of fermentation
(0.0175mmol/L) on a sucrose
concentration of 0.2931M.
(Loncar E et al, ‘Biosynthesis of glucuronic acid by means of tea fungus’, Nahrung 44(2), 2000) To access this document please click
here |
| Researchers
at the ‘Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Technology,
University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia’, cited earlier
authorative published analysis proving positive for glucuronic
acid in Kombucha
tea fungus cultures as:
L.T. DANIELOVA, Trudy Erevanskogo zooveterinarnogo Instituta, 17, 201216 (1954); L. N. KONOVALOV, M. .N. SEMENOVA, Bot. Žurnal (Moskva), 40(4), 567570 (1955); P. H. LIST, W. HUFSCHMIDT, Pharm. Zentralhalle, 98(11), 593598 (1959); S. PETROVIC, E. LONCAR, Mikrobiologija, 33(2), 101106 (1996); J. REISS, Dtsch. Lebensm.Rundsch., 83, 286290 (1987); E. S. LONCAR, S. E. PETROVIC, R. V. MALBAŠA, R. M. VERAC, Nahrung 44, 138139 (2000). (Malbaša R et al, ‘Sucrose and Inulin Balance During Tea Fungus Fermentation’, Roum Biotechnol Lett, 7(1), 2002) To
acces this document please click here |
| Researchers
at the ‘Department of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering,
University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia’, reported that in addition
to tea components and sugar, Kombucha tea fungus culture contains
acetic acid, gluconic acids, L-lactic acids and vitamin C and quoting
the above work of Loncar and others, opined that one
of the most important metabolites from therapeutic point of view
is glucuronic acid, a carrier
of detoxification activity of Kombucha.
(Cvetkovic D, Markov S, ‘Cultivation of Tea Fungus on Malt Extract Medium’, Acta Periodica Tech, 33: 117, 2002) To acces this document please click
here |
| Researchers
at the ‘Department of Analytical Chemistry, School of Biochemistry
and Biological Sciences, University of Ciudad, Santa Fe, Argentina’,
reported quite definitively, using progressive modern analytical
techniques, as follows:
“An experiment was developed as a simple alternative to existing analytical methods for the quantitation of glucuronic acid (main product) in the bioprocesses of Kombucha tea fungus culture by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy coupled to multivariate calibration (partial least-squares, PLS-1 and artificial neural networks, ANNs). Wavelength selection through a novel ranked regions genetic algorithm (RRGA) was used to enhance the predictive ability of the chemometric models. Acceptable results were obtained by using the ANNs models considering the complexity of the sample and the speediness and simplicity of the method. The accuracy on the glucuronic acid determination was calculated by analysing spiked real fermentation samples (recoveries ca. 115%).” (Franco V et al, ‘Monitoring substrate and products in a bioprocess with FTIR spectroscopy coupled to artificial neural networks enhanced with a genetic-algorithm-based method for wavelength selection’, Tatlana - Intl J Pure App Analyt Chem, 68(3), 2006) To acces this document please click
here |
Researchers
at the ‘Oncology Institute of Vojvodina and Department of
Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Faculty of Technology,
University of Novi Sad, Serbia’ have recently reiterated
their opinion that the beneficial effects of Kombucha
are attributed to the presence of (amongst other things) glucuronic
acid produced during fermentation.
(Mrdanovic J et al, ‘The frequency of sister chromatid exchange and micronuclei in evaluation of cytogenetic activity of Kombucha on human peripheral blood lymphocytes’, Arch Oncol, 15(3-4), 2007) To
acces this document please click here |
| Researchers
at the ‘Microbial Biotechnology Division, Department of Biotechnology,
University of Bharathiar, India’, studied
changes in content of organic acid in Kombucha
tea fungus culture utilising high-performance
liquid chromatography and determined
that the glucuronic acid concentration
reached a maximum up to 2.3 g/l in on the 12th day of fermentation.
(Jayabalan R et al, ‘Changes in content of organic acids and tea polyphenols during Kombucha fermentation’, Food Chem, 102(1), 2007) To acces this document please click
here |
| A researcher/lecturer in the
Food Technology Faculty, Slamet Riyadi University, Surakarta, Indonesia,
reasoning that because the functional
properties of Kombucha correlate tightly with its
glucuronic acid content,
undertook research aimed at studying the dominating microbes, growth
pattern and optimised process to develop Kombucha with the highest
possible content of glucuronic acid, comparing cane, coconut and arenga
sugars. Results showed that although cane sugar yielded the highest
microbial growth, a better carbon source for the highest formation
of metabolites was coconut and arenga sugars. It was determined that
with Kombucha,
the higher the concentration of sugar (10%) and
fermentation temperature (30°C), the
greater was the degree of sediment and the yield of glucuronic
acid.
(Karyantina M, 'Optimalization Process Kombucha With Variation Degrees Of Coconut Sugar', Mercuria, 12 November, 2008) To acces this document please click
here |
| Researchers
at ‘The Microbial Biotechnology Division, Department of Biotechnology,
Bharathiar University and the Department of Biotechnology, Bannari
Amman Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India’, and associate
researchers at ‘The Division of Biotechnology, Department
of Food Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju,
Republic of Korea’, have most recently published their results
of gas chromatographic analysis of Kombucha
tea fungus culture, which
determined glucuronic acid at
0.38g/100ml,
which result they stated were “in
agreement with the results of Blanc and Jayabalan et al”.
[(Blanc P, Biotechnol Lett,
18(2), 1996); (Jayabalan R et al, Food Chem, 102(1), 2007)]
Technical Details
of the Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Kombucha Tea Detailed Results
of the Gas Chromatographic Analysis of Kombucha Tea (Murugesan G et al, ‘Hepatoprotective and Curative Properties of Kombucha Tea Against Carbon Tetrachloride-Induced Toxicity’, J Microbiol Biotechnol 19(0nline 30 Jan 09), 2009) To acces this document
please click here |
| In
closing, let me shake up this whole matter with a curved ball.
Researchers at the ‘Faculty of Science, Fernando Pessoa University’ and the ‘Faculty of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacy at do Porto University’, Portugal, add more intrigue to the debate, claiming: “As far as we know, few chemical studies concerning leaves’ organic acid profiles have been developed. ‘Before’ Kombucha tea fermentation (green and black tea leaves), the main organic acid is D-glucuronic acid. Nevertheless, acetic, lactic and citric acids are also found after fermentation and their contents are significant changed during fermentation time (Jayabalan et al, 2007). (Oliveira A et al, Food Chem, 111(2), 2008) To acces this document please click here Does this serve to return me full circle to my original contention that much of the beneficial effects of the Kombucha beverage are attributable to the Camellia sinensis tea with which it is brewed? |
[Please feel free to contact the author of this page (director@gaiaresearch.co.za) regarding any errors and or additions you may consider relevant to the raised aspects of this ongoing debate] |
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