Saccharomyces boulardii was discovered in Vietnam 100 years ago… and it comes from lychees

Long before the land became known as Vietnam, following on the footstep of microbiologists Alexandre Yersin and Louis Pasteur, Henri Boulard was trying to understand why locals were dying from a cholera epidemic, which was marked by severe diarrhea.

He observed those who survived drank a tea from lychee fruit skins. In 1923, upon further research, the microbiological analysis of the preparation of the skins revealed a tropical strain of Saccharomyces yeast that developed at a high temperature for yeasts (37°C), the temperature of the human body. The yeast did not have a name, so he gave it its own name: Saccharomyces boulardii.

Since then, S. boulardii has been documented in several acute and chronic gut disorders with 100+ clinical studies and 300+ scientific publications in human medicine.

Almost a century after its discovery, new applications are still being investigated by the scientific community, revealing the power of this unique yeast strain has for both human and animal health.

Today, the Saccharomyces boulardii strain is the only yeast strain used as a probiotic in human nutrition and medicine.

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