The Effect of Kombucha Tea on Learning and Memory in Rats

Kombucha tea is a health beverage made by incubating the Kombucha mushroom in black tea and sugar. Although various therapeutic benefits have been attributed to the drink, and it is consumed however widely in many populations throughout the world. Neither its beneficial effects nor adverse side effects however have been studied sufficiently. As this beverage contains some alcohol and it may have some effect on central nervous system (CNS), we proposed to study the effect of its chronic consumption on learning and memory which are among the most complex functions in the CNS.
In this study we used a Shuttle Box device to assess active avoidance learning and memory as recently described. Ten Wistar male rats were equally divided into two groups. The animals in control group continued to drink tap water while the animals in the experimental groups had availability of Kombucha tea ad libitum instead, for 2 months until the onset of behavioral studies and continued up to the end of the studies.
Our data showed that although chronic consumption of Kombucha tea during 2 months led to a slight decline in number of shocks receiving by animals in all three stages of the study (learning, short term memory and long term memory). There was no significant difference between animals of the control and the experimental groups (p=0.539, p=0.476, p=0.323 respectively).
Our results indicate that chronic consumption of Kombucha tea had neither significant beneficial nor adverse side effect on learning and memory.