From HOFFMANN.NORBERT%OLAF2@OLAF2.ADMIN.STOLAF.EDU Tue Apr 12 10:27:47 1994 Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 19:51:35 . From: HOFFMANN.NORBERT%OLAF2@OLAF2.ADMIN.STOLAF.EDU Reply to: "Medicinal and Aromatic Plants discussion list\"." To: Multiple recipients of list HERB Subject: Kombucha TO: HERB STOLAF Internet Recipient FROM: HOFFMANN NORBERT Dir. Admin. Computing, email: hoffmann@stolaf.edu DATE: April 11, 1994 SUBJECT: Kombucha Here is my contribution to the Kombucha discussion/exchange: I dug up the Nov. 1990 issue of the Swiss magazine "Natuerlich" I am subscribing to. There I remembered a lengthy article about Kombucha. I don't know anything about the author, imagine he is a journalist. He claims to have done a lot of research on the subject. He calls Kombucha a symbiotic tea fungus (bacteria/yeast) from the far east which has been around for generations, especially with east Asian people. He says he spoke with many people from eastern Prussia, the baltics, Silesia, Saxony etc. who remembered from their childhood the mug guarded by their grandma with the special sweetened tea and the strange fungus floating in it sitting somewhere in a warm corner. There is not only truth but also a lot of fiction according to the writer. Many non-scientific sources talk about a large number of ailments Kombucha is suupposed to be good for. Scientific reports speak of its therapeutic effects based on various chemicals found in it, like Glucon- and Glucuron acid, Vitamin C and B group. Especially Russian research has shown antibiotic and detoxifying as well as interferon like properties. Reagan, Stalin and Solschenizyn (sp?) have used it to treat or prevent cancer. Alexander Solschenizyn reports in his autobiographies (Cancer Ward, Archipelagus Gulag, Right Hand ...titles?) how his stomach cancer which already had spread to lungs, liver and intestines, was miraculously cured by Kombucha made with tea from birch leaves. The writer explains that Kombucha is considered a drug in Switzerland and its trade is regulated accordingly by the offical pharmaceutical agency IKS (= FDA?). Sources: Heinz Knieriemen, "Der Teepilz Kombucha und die Meereskristalle Tib als Gesundheitselixiere", Natuerlich, Nov. 1990, Aarau, Switzerland. Guenter Frank, Kombucha, 1990, Steyr, Switzerland. Valentin Koehler, "Glucuronsaeure macht Krebspatienten Mut", Aerztliche Praxis, 1961. Haaager, "Combucha", in Handbuch fuer die pharmazeutische Praxis. (no date or place given). He indicates other sources but doesn't list them. Norbert