Does kombucha tea reduce the damage-induced by radiation exposure?

This work has been performed to investigate the protective effect and the antimicrobial activity that occur following oral administration of kombucha tea (kt) ferment in rats with a fractionated dose of 9 Gy. The protective effect of kt ferment was monitored by assessment of serum enzymes activities of creatin phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and concentrations of urea and creatinine as well as contents of reduced glutathione (GSH) and malonaldehyde (MDA) in heart, liver and kidney tissues. Besides evaluation of the antimicrobial activity was carried out by determination of the lactic acid bacterial (LAB) count as an example of the beneficial bacteria in the rat intestine and the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (S. aureus) count as an example of the pathogenic bacteria for rats. The results obtained suggest that administration of this ferment tea could ameliorate biochemical and microbial disturbances in irradiated rats