Praise, doubt surround the mysterious kambocha

From Venice, Calif., to Bangor the kambocha (pronounced kam-BOO-ka) “mushroom” is a health craze that is, depending on whom you talk, to either a wonder elixir, curing a myriad of diseases, or the source of a potentially dangerous brew.

Kambocha tea has been cited as the cure for everything from indigestion to an increase in T-cells in AIDS patients, but researchers have found no scientific evidence of kambocha’s abilities to cure disease.

Philomena Baker-Myerowitz of Bangor, a native of Odessa, Russia, who moved to Maine in 1959, first came across kambocha while visiting her cousin in Germany.

The recipe for the drink calls for a soup of black tea and sugar to be placed in a large glass bowl. Then either a dried or fresh form of the mushroom is allowed to ferment in the broth for seven to 10 days, producing a vinegar brine.

Then the liquid (called tea) is strained off and kept in the refrigerator. Enthusiasts drink it cold, and when they run out, brew up a fresh batch of tea.

In the process the first generation of kambocha grows a second generation on top. This new mushroom is then passed on from one person to another, free of charge, forming a sort of New Age chain letter.

Baker says she has been using alternative healing practices for years and that she fell in love with the tea from the very beginning. At first, she says, she had a constant craving for the tea and drank as much of it as she could brew. She says that now her desire has balanced out and that she only drinks two to three 8-ounce glasses a day.

She attributes her rosy complexion to the tea. But more significantly, Baker, who was diagnosed with Grave’s disease more than six years ago, credits the tea with an improvement in her eyesight in addition to an increase in general health and an increased sense of well-being.

Her husband, Moshe Myerowitz, a Bangor chiropractor, says that he noticed his wife’s hair reverting from gray back to its original darker color.

Baker brought the kambocha back to Maine about a year and a half ago and is a great enthusiast about what she claims is the tea’s ability to promote overall health and alleviate a long list of physical ailments.

Baker says that she’s given away more than a dozen kambocha mushrooms to her friends and has received inquiries from as far away as Virginia. She adds that those people are in turn passing it on to their friends.

The kambocha has the feel of human skin, says Baker, and seems so generous in its gift of health that she feels people should approach the tea-brewing organism with the same amount of respect and reverence that she brings to all living creatures.

She is very passionate in her belief that the kambocha should be passed on free of charge and given to people who are willing to accept the responsibility of tending the kambocha as it grows and develops offspring.

She says that when a kambocha must be thrown out, she wraps it in a paper towel and places it in a bag before disposing of it and does not casually throw it out in the trash.

Dr. Jeffrey Gates who works at Cornell University studying the effects of food on health in China has also done some preliminary research on the kambocha.

Although kambocha is often referred to as a mushroom, says Gates, it is actually a symbiotic relationship between various types of yeasts and bacteria that feed off the sugar and tea broth.

Gates says the growth mass goes by at least 60 different names around the world, and although the origins of kambocha are not clear, it has definitely covered the planet.

Gates says there are more than 600 references in the literature that deal with kombucha, but most of these come from Russia and lack the kind of information required for scientific interpretation.

He also points out that he has not found any clinical studies in English that can account for the long list of benefits attributed to kambocha, but says that one study from West Africa looked at kambocha’s effect on rats and mice.

The study showed a simple sedative effect on the mice with no ill effects at all, but the rats developed serious damage to the intestines, kidneys and liver.

Gates says such dramatic differences suggest that kambocha has a different effect on different species and that long-term use of kombucha may be risky.

Rick Fienhage, a social worker in Bangor, considers himself a skeptical person and does not want to tout any miracles that he can’t prove scientifically.

Fienhage says he received his first kambocha from a friend visiting from Colorado. He says that the kambocha was brought to Maine from the West alive in an ice chest. Fienhage says that since his friend had been drinking the tea for some time without problems, he decided to taste it himself, and says he’s been drinking four ounces of cold tea each morning since the middle of September.

Fienhage describes the taste as slightly effervescent and a little vinegary like a sparkling cider. He drank the tea for about a month without any adverse effects and felt confidant enough to pass on the tea to some friends. So far he’s given the kambocha, free of charge, to friends in North Carolina, New York, Boston and Vermont.

His wife says that she’s noticed his hair turning from a premature gray to a dirty blond, though Fienhage doesn’t feel there is enough of a color change to attribute it to drinking the tea. He does say that in past winters he’s had a cold by this time of the year and, since drinking the tea, has made it so far without a sniffle.