JAKARTA - Kombucha tea is one of the teas that is increasingly popular because it has a distinctive taste and aroma, namely a combination of acid, sweet, and light carbonated similar to apple juice.
According to a written statement from the Institute for the Study of Food, Medicine and Cosmetics, the Indonesian Ulema Council (LPPOM MUI) on Wednesday, kombucha tea is believed to have many health benefits because it has a higher nutritional value than ordinary tea.
Commbucha tea is a fermented product between bacterial symbiotics and fungi that have functional properties.
Usually, fermentation is done with a solution of tea and sugar by a combucha culture starter called Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY). SCOBY is formed from the symbiosis of acetate bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, and osmphilic yeast that are inserted into cellulose tissue.
Combucha culture symbiosis uses Acetobacter xylinum and several types of khamirs such as Saccaromyces, Bletanomyces, andZygosaccharomyces.
Activities of microorganisms during the fermentation process also produce various compounds that are beneficial for health, including organic acids such as glucoronic acid and acetum acids, essential amino acids, folic acids, enzymes, antibiotics, and phenolic compounds.
In addition, kombucha tea has more organic vitamins and amino acids than regular teas.
From these various ingredients, kombucha tea also has various benefits, including antibacterial, antidiabetic, and antioxidant.
Then, kombucha tea also functions as a probiotic so that it makes the intestine healthier and advances bowel movements and repairs the gut microflora.
Another benefit is to lower blood pressure, increase endurance, lower cholesterol, prevent cardiovascular disease, stimulate the body's immune system, reduce inflammation, treat rectal swelling, prevent cancer, and treat headaches.
Regarding the law of consuming kombucha tea, the Fatwa of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) Number 10 of 2018 concerning Food and Beverage Products Containing Alcohol/Etanol states that fermented beverage products containing alcohol or ethanol are less than 0.5 percent of the law is halal, during the process they do not use illegal materials and if medically they are not dangerous.
Even so, the laboratory manager and LPPOM MUI auditor Heryani reminded that kombucha tea has a halal critical point that needs to be considered, one of which is the media to grow bacteria and khamir Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the fermentation process.
Its creation could use microbiological media. The critical point of microbiological media lies in the nitrogen source for the nutritional growth of its bacteria, which could come from meat extracts, meat hydrolysis peptons, and other ingredients. This meat needs to be traced comes from halal animals slaughtered according to Islamic sharia or comes from forbidden animals," said Heryani, as reported by Antara.
Other critical ingredients, according to Heryani, lie in sugar, which in the manufacturing process can use active charcoal from animal bones.
Sometimes, in the process of making it, sugar uses an auxiliary material for ion exchange resin, so it must be ensured that the resin does not use gelatin from illegal animals.
"Another thing that is also critical is the use of peria (flavour), which contains derivative materials from fat, both from animals and plants," he said.
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