probably notaugie wrote: Does anyone know of instances where someone was Dx'ed with illness related to the bacteria in Pu Ehr or any tea?
any bacteria would not last long on stored tea and any disease would be acute, temporary(most often).
the "greater" concern related to certain fungal toxins - aflatoxin(produced only by certain species of aspergillus) is that it could cause liver cancer, which occurs over a long period of time with continuous exposure (?20-30-40 years?) - at which point someone with liver cancer will be suspected of common causes like chronic Hepatitis, chronic alcohol, tho in Asian countries aflatoxins in foods are suspected of being a major player. Asian countries(China) and Asian(Chinese)-Americans have higher incidence of liver cancer.
Aflatoxins have mostly been associated with grains, peanuts, coffee (HK report -tho their testing finds 92% free from aflatoxin, but they dont include/specify if tea was tested -- in the previously quoted study aflatoxin was found in >66% of corn and peanut oil, 23% positive rice.
There arent many studies looking for fungus in tea (black tea, herbal);
one study says that tannin inhibits aflatoxin; and ofcourse, flavonoids/polyphenols/egcg inhibit invitro damage by aflatoxin...(1,2,3) ... dont forget too that EGCG CBGB itself can also cause liver damage...in rats ... studies
I'm trying to find what temperatures can inactivate the fungi/aflatoxin (only found one invitro aspergillus cultures >10-15min at 60C, for coffee 20min at 200C inactivates aflatoxin)
anywho.... all this fungus talk make me thirsty for some green puer and soft cheese (ooo listeria ooooh)