Effect of Korean Traditional Alcoholic Beverages on Health

Dear Colleagues,

Korea's long history and unique culture have led to the development of its own traditional alcoholic beverages. These beverages differ notably from Western traditional alcohols owing to the geographical and cultural distances between countries, but share some similarities with those from China and Japan. The major differentiator of Korean alcoholic beverages is that they use Nuruk, containing various microorganisms, and mainly cereals, as a raw materials for fermentation. Korean fermented alcoholic beverages have unique flavors and tastes that are absent from their original raw materials. Nowadays, because of increased health consciousness, low alcoholic beverages, such as Makgeolli, are becoming popular in Korea. Makgeolli is an alcoholic beverage made mostly from rice and Nuruk. Makgeolli contains unfiltered floating matter, also components of microorganisms, such as yeast and lactic acid bacteria, in addition to the raw material-derived and fermentation-product-derived starches, oligosaccharides, organic acids, and peptides, as well as various kinds of biologically-active beneficial components. Consumption of the unfiltered final product of Makgeolli is known to provide higher levels of health beneficial components compared to filtered alcoholic beverages after fermentation. It has been studied that Makgeolli has a wide range of physiological functions, such as anticancer, anti-hypertension properties and improvements to intestinal health. In this Special Issue, fermented alcoholic beverages, mainly Makgeolli, that represent Korean ethnic fermented beverages are presented with a description of their functional properties.

Dr. Jang-Eun Lee
Dr. Eunjung Lee
Guest Editors

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