ANTITUMORAL ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITIES OF KEFIR AND KEFIR GRAIN

Kefir is a milk-derived product prepared by the incubation of kefir 'g rains' with defatted milk. Various studies have been published on the therapeutic effects of kefir. However, few controlled studies and litt le information on the antibacterial, antifungal and antitumoural activ ities of kefir have been published. Therefore, these activities associ ated with kefir were investigated. The daily intraperitoneal administr ation of 0.50 mL kefir for 20 days to mice; containing transplanted fu siform cell carcomas resulted in a significant decrease in tumour size . Kefir-induced disappearance of tumoural necrosis was also evident. W ith respect to the antibacterial activity of kefir, the greatest activ ity was exhibited against gram-positive coccus, staphylococcus, and gr am-positive bacillus. Kefir 'grains' showed higher antibacterial activ ity than kefir. Kefir also demonstrated antifungal activity against Ca ndida, Saccharomyces, Rhodotorula, Torulopsis, Microsporum and Trichop yton species. The results demonstrate that kefir possesses antibacteri al, antifungal and antineoplastic activities, and provides credence to the folklorec use of kefir for a variety of infectious and neoplastic diseases.