Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a common industrial solvent for many years used as an anesthetic. It appears to cause liver damage. A recent experiment with rats asked if kombucha could protect against TCE damage. For at least two measures, it did. TCE raised free radicals in the blood by a factor of 6; kombucha reduced the increase to a factor of 2. TCE also increased gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) activity, a mark of liver damage; kombucha reduced GGT activity to normal levels.
The paper’s bibliography includes a reference to a survey of kombucha’s health effects:
Dufresne C, Farnworth E: Tea, kombucha health: a review. Food Res Int 2000, 336:409-421.
The researcher brewed the kombucha that was used (for about ten days). Weirdly the source of the kombucha is given under “Competing Interests” at the end of the paper.
This article will appear in the journal Chinese Medicine — but I have not found kombucha for sale in Beijing.