Abstract
Kombucha, fermented black tea with symbiotic association of bacteria and yeast, has been claimed by its drinkers for several health benefits. Health benefits of kombucha tea are directly associated with the composition and the concentration of the biomolecules present in it. Being a product fermented by bacteria and yeast association, kombucha has very complex composition which has a range of components from tea plant, bacteria, yeast, and compounds produced during fermentation process. The compounds responsible for the claimed benefits of kombucha have not been explored due to its complexity. This chapter focuses on the metabolites of kombucha which have been reported.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen C, Liu BY (2000) Changes in major components of tea fungus metabolites during prolonged fermentation. J Appl Microbiol 89:834–839
Jayabalan R, Malbaša RV, Lončar ES, Vitas JS, Sathishkumar M (2014) A review on kombucha tea – microbiology, composition, fermentation, beneficial effects, toxicity, and tea fungus. Comp Rev Food Sci Safety 13:538–550
Dufresne C, Farnworth E (2000) Tea, kombucha, and health: a review. Food Res Int 33:409–421
Kanchanarach W, Theeragool G, Inoue T, Yakushi T, Adachi O, Matsushita K (2010) Acetic acid fermentation of Acetobacter pasteurianus: relationship between acetic acid resistance and pellicle polysaccharide formation. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 74:1591–1597
Davies G, Parsek MR, Pearson JP, Iglewski BH, Costerton JW, Greenberg EP (1998) The involvement of cell-to-cell signals in the development of a bacterial biofilm. Science 280:295–298
Blanc PJ (1996) Characterization of the tea fungus metabolites. Biotechnol Lett 18:139–142
Lončar ES, Malbaša RV, Kolarov LA (2001) Metabolic activity of tea fungus on molasses as a source of carbon. Acta Period Technol 32:21–26
Czaja W, Krystynowicz A, Bielecki S, Brown M (2006) Microbial cellulose–the natural power to heal wounds. Biomateria 27:145–151
Sanderson GW, Selvendran RR (1965) The organic acids in tea plants. A study of the non-volatile organic acids separated on silica gel. J Sci Food Agri 16:251–258
Vina I, Semjonovs P, Linde R, Patetko A (2013) Glucuronic acid containing fermented functional beverages produced by natural yeasts and bacterial associations. IJRRAS 14:17–25
George J, Ramana KV, Sabapathy SN, Bawa AS (2005) Physico-mechanical properties of chemically treated bacterial (Acetobacter xylinum) cellulose membrane. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 21:1323–1327
Acknowledgement
Author Rasu Jayabalan acknowledges the support given by the National Institute of Technology (Rourkela, Odisha, India), Prof. K. Swaminathan (Dept. of Microbial Biotechnology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India), Prof. Sei Eok Yun (Department of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea), Dr. S. Marimuthu (R & D Centre, Parry Agro Industries Ltd., Valparai, Tamil Nadu, India), Department of Science and Technology (DST grant No. SERC/LS-156/2012), and Department of Biotechnology (DBT grant No. 102/IFD/SAN/2770/2013–2014), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. Author Radomir Malbaša thanks the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia (Grant III-46009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this entry
Cite this entry
Jayabalan, R., Malbaša, R.V., Sathishkumar, M. (2015). Kombucha Tea: Metabolites. In: Merillon, JM., Ramawat, K. (eds) Fungal Metabolites. Reference Series in Phytochemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19456-1_12-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19456-1_12-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19456-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Chemistry and Mat. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics