ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL AND PROSPECTS FOR KOMBUCHA USE
Medusomyces gisevi (tea mushroom, kombucha) has been widely used by the population for a long time. It is used as a functional beverage and as a natural prophylactic and medicinal substance for health benefits. For many reasons, kombucha drink is used for self-treatment in cases when microbial aggression is the basis of disease process. Although it has been proven that kombucha metabolites are of a rich multicomponent composition, it is obvious that to study kombucha tea effects is an important task of modern medicine as there are contradictory data on its use and effects. Thus, the authors studied literature on prospects and properties of Medusomyces gisevi (Kombucha). For this review, a large number of literary sources, mostly foreign, were analyzed. It has been found that in the vast majority of cases studies of kombucha effect were and are carried out on experimental models, while there have been only a few clinical trials. Kombucha tea is said to have antioxidant, detoxification, anti-inflammatory, immunostimulat-ing, lipid-lowering effect, etc. A large number of authors proved the pronounced bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect of tea fungus metabolites on a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms. Obviously, given the growing popularity of preventive and therapeutic use of kombucha tea, the need for its large-scale research, including clinical, is increasing. Such studies are necessary to assess the pharmacological effects of Medusomyces gisevi and its metabolites.