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Someone on another list said she used to enjoy kombucha tea until she did some

more research and found things like this article:

http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html

Here is part of it:

....One of the major problems with trying to culture Kombucha at home is the fact

that the sugar medium is non-selective. The culturing of yogurt or sourdough can

be done with a modicum of success, because the milk and flour media selectively

favors the desired organisms. Not so with sugar, tea and water which is an " open

slate " for the culturing of most microorganisms - including pathogenic

Aspergillus, Candida, Cryptococcus, and Fusarium species. The first week is the

most critical time during which contaminants in Kombucha race for dominance. As

the PH of the broth descends into acidity, the risk of pathogenic organisms

proliferating is real and measurable. The primary vectors of contamination are

of course, the air. Cheese cloth is an ineffective filtration membrane for

preventing airborne contamination. Airborne contamination can be prevented by

forcing air through a sub-micron filter, the type which are commonly used in

Laminar Flow Hoods in sterile tissue culture. Without such filtration (99.99% at

..3 microns), contamination is probable. It is easy to prove this danger by

simply pouring the sugar media into sterile Petri dishes (with a gelatinizer

like agar agar added). Exposing these dishes briefly to the air in your kitchen

will result in a plethora of contamination growth in only 4-5 days. These

organisms are made more visible on the surface of the media because of the

gelatinizing agent-agar. In liquid culture, they are proliferating even more

rapidly, but more invisibly, because they are submerged. The other vectors of

contamination are: the mother culture, the insufficiently sterilized media, your

hands, and the vessel in which the brew is made.

Few people are aware that more than 1,000,000 particles exceeding .3 microns are

floating in the air per cubic foot. These are generally not dangerous unless

they become more concentrated or if the impacted human is immunocompromised.

Although the majority of these contaminants may not be dangerous, it takes only

one pathogenic species proliferating to a toxic level to cause serious harm.

Making Kombucha under non-sterile conditions becomes, in a sense, a biological

form of Russian Roulette. For those who are ill, drinking Kombucha prepared at

home could be one of the worst things they could do!

According to the recipe, I boiled water for 5 minutes to make a Black Tea (Earl

Grey also works) fortified with what seemed to be an unusually ample amount of

white sugar.

To each liter (quart) of water, after boiling for 5 minutes, add 70 grams (2 1/2

oz) of sugar, add 1 tea bag (= 5 grams or 1/6 oz). Let steep. Once cool, pour

about 1/10 equivalent of Kombucha tea as inoculum. Stuff the opening with cotton

or gauze. Incubate for 7-10 days at room temperature. The fluid will bubble from

carbon dioxide production during the active fermentation period. If not wishing

to actively grow Kombucha, the fermenting jars can be stored in the refrigerator

for prolonged periods. The gelatinous Blob will soon float on the surface as a

cohesive sheath. Older colonies, with a higher density, will shelf off from

underneath and sink to the bottom.

Kombucha is unlikely to become contaminated with bacteria if the tea broth has a

sufficiently high sucrose content (approximately 10+ percent sugar), making it a

naturally inhospitable environment. Furthermore, the tea-with its high acidity,

alcohol content and antibiotics-makes bacterial contamination even less

probable. Another factor, beyond contamination, is that the extreme acidic

nature of the broth has the potential to cause acidosis-a condition where the

blood can not adjust its pH. This is one of the suspect causes being

investigated with a woman in Iowa who died from drinking Kombucha (See Newsweek,

April 25th, 1995, pg. 6). Ironically, the same acidic conditions that prevent

bacterial contamination may give rise to its own toxic side-effects.

High acidity of the broth aside, I have seen several of my vessels spontaneously

contaminate with molds. Of most concern are the species of Aspergillus I have

found floating around with Kombucha. I fear that amateurs could think that by

merely pulling out the Aspergillus colonies with a fork, that the culture would

be de-contaminated, a dangerous, even deadly presupposition.

The water-soluble toxins of Aspergillus can be highly carcinogenic. Several

species are known killers. Since the public can not be expected to distinguish a

clean fermented culture from one which is not, I fear that the unreserved use of

this tea will result, has resulted in illness, if not death. (See Newsweek,

April 25th, 1995, pg. 6.)

Should your Kombucha become contaminated-most often the contaminants are green,

pink or black mold-islands floating on the surface of the tea-you can try to

re-purify the culture by removing a portion of contiguous sheath and introducing

it to a newly prepared batch of tea. Prior to insertion, you should thoroughly

wash the sheath with cold water. If the sheath you chose falls apart, then you

have likely selected one that is infected. The sheath should have good

cohesiveness and feel rubbery to the touch. Once placed into the new batch of

tea, incubate as before and watch. The general rule of " when in doubt, throw it

out " holds true here. Even with this technique, one should not presume that the

Kombucha Blob has been fully purified of contaminants. Herein lies my greatest

concern: in all of the " home grown " literature-photocopies, mimeographs, and

handwritten sheets-accompanying the many Kombucha samples I have received, not

one mentions the possibility of contamination nor methods for re-isolation.

Furthermore, with the complex associations between these multiple organisms, it

is possible that other bacteria and yeast species may join in the symbiosis with

unpredictable effects.

In short, if you are dying from an illness not currently treatable with

antibiotics, pure, uncontaminated cultures of Kombucha may help you. Otherwise,

I think the danger of misuse should be a prevailing concern for us all.

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>Someone on another list said she used to enjoy kombucha tea until she did some

more research and found things like this article:

>

><http://www.fungi.com/info/articles/blob.html>http://www.fungi.com/info/article\

s/blob.html

The CDC did a study on some cultures which I read sometime back, though

it doesn't seem to be on their website anymore. They tested 100 cultures

or so for nasties, and didn't find any. The acidity of the culture inhibits

the pathogenic bacteria.

Molds are another matter! I don't mess around with molds. I'd kind

of wonder though, if mold forms, if the culture was healthy to

begin with. I make kefiili and I make vinegar and I make kefir beer ...

none of those has ever grown any mold, even though I've left

kefiili cream in the fridge for several months (ditto with kimchi).

Bottled beer never molds either, in my experience. I have had some

cultures I've made mold, and then they get tossed!

I don't worry too much about the " nonsterility " of the conditions.

Yeah, some salmonella might float into my kefiili culture. If it does,

and if the culture is healthy, it will kill the salmonella, or render

it harmless. Dead bacteria, when ingested, act as a kind of vaccine,

it is thought (that is how vaccines work ... they train the body to

recognize baddies).

Your intestines get live bad bacteria in them all the time ... unless

the bacterial population is unhealthy there, or they are just

totally overwhelmed, your system handles the baddies quite easily.

Eating probiotic foods that are " used to " handling environmental

pathogens makes you more able to withstand those pathogens too!

However ... I've never made kombucha so I'm not commenting

on that in particular.

-- Heidi Jean

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