Cordyceps (Caterpillar Fungus) Health Benefits

Cordyceps sinensis. Source: www.consciouslifenews.com

Today I’m going to present you a very interesting fungus bearing important heath benefits in animal and humans. Cordyceps belongs to Clavicipitaceae Family (Ascomycetes) and contains more than 680 species found on all six continents. This fungus occurs as parasitically or commensally on a wide range of insect hosts (larvae, or mature insects). It was also found inhabiting truffles of genus Elaphomyces.

The most well known and studied species is Cordyceps sinensis but there are some other cultivated species such as C. militaris, C. sobolifera, C. subsessilus, or C. ophioglossoides.
Brief description: Cordiceps sinensis has a club-like shape and is brown to black in color, tough texture and the fruitbody is originating at the base of an insect larva (usually the larva of the Himalayan bat moth Thitarodes armoricanus or on other insect hosts).

The first written record of Cordyceps dates back in ancient China in the year AD 620 at the time of Tang Dynasty. Its remarkable health effect is given by the polyssacharides (among other compounds): for example C. sinensis contains a large amount of polyssacharides ranging from 3% to 8% of the total weight extracted from fruiting bodies, mycelium or broth.

In the Traditional Chinese Medicine hot water extracts were successfully used for a long time. Nowadays, besides hot water extract there are several extraction methods; however, important to know is that different extraction methods focus on the extraction of different active substances.  Traditionally, Cordyceps was also used as tea or prepared as a medicinal soup in combination with various types of meat.

Some decades ago, Cordyceps was collected from the wild and sold in the market at a very high price. Initially, several attempts to cultivate this fungus have failed but more recently by the mid-1980s, the fungus has been successfully cultivated and practically what we have in our Cordyceps dietary supplements are cultivated Cordyceps. Today its price is much lower. On average 40% of the rural cash income in the Tibet is derived from its collection (about 50.000 kg in 2004 which is $225 million).

Wild or cultivated Cordyceps?
Many say that wild Cordyceps is best because has a stronger medicinal effect than the cultivated one; however, today with the existing modern technology the quality of cultivated Cordyceps is improving while concerning Cordyceps collected from the wild you should know that there are some disadvantages:

1. Wild Cordyceps is more expensive than the cultivated one, especially because is rare and the collection area in case of C. sinensis (Tibet Plateau) is hardly accessible.
2. Many medicinal mushrooms have the ability to accumulate heavy metals and other pollutants mostly form air and soil or substrate on which they grow. Cordyceps is one of them; therefore purchasing wild Cordyceps from a reliable source is rather difficult task. Because Cordyceps in the markets was sold by weight, many collectors of wild Cordyceps have inserted a small bit of twig into caterpillars to increase the weight, in some cases they used lead which is however a very unhealthy practice.
3. Identification of Cordyceps species is often misleading for the untrained eye because of morphologically similar species. Reliable identification should be done by specialists in the field.

Cultivated Cordyceps has the advantage that is readily available on the market at low cost, and is tested for heavy metals content and other such undesired pollutants. It is recommended to choose Cordyceps as medicine resulted from 100% organic grown fungus.

Side Effects: Some people using Cordyceps complained about dry mouth, nausea, or diarrhea. There is not sufficient evidence referring to pregnant or lacting women, or young children. While no toxicity has been reported in humans although dosage was 30-50 g of Cordyceps/day (in some cancer suffering patiens).


References:

Bensky D., Clavey S., Stoger E. 2004. In: Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, 3d ed. Seattle, Eastland Press.

Holliday J., Cleaver M., Wasser S.P. 2005. Cordyceps. Encyclopedia of dietary supplements, 1-13.

Holliday J., et al. 2011. Cordyceps. In: Medicinal Mushrooms, Nat. Acad. of Sci. of Ukraine, Kiev, 2:223-230.

Zhou X., Gong Z., Su Y., et al. 2009. Cordyceps fungi: Natural products, pharmacological functions and developmental products. J Pharm. Pharmacol, 61: 279-291.

Winkler D. Yartsa Gumbu (Cordiceps sinensis) and the fungal commodification of Tibet’s rural economy. Economic Botany, 62(3): 291-305.

MUSHROOMES CLUB UPDATES IN YOUR INBOX FOLLOW ME