Abstract
Cordyceps, a type of Chinese herbal medicine that exhibits anti-angiogenesis and tumor growth suppression effects, has recently gained increasing popularity. However, high-quality, natural Cordyceps, such as Ophiocordyceps sinensis, is very rare and difficult to obtain in large amounts. Cordyceps is cultured instead of harvested from natural sources, but the quality with respect to the ingredients has not been fully studied. In this study, we performed an NMR metabolic profiling of aqueous extracts of Cordyceps without any sample treatment to evaluate the proper species and medium and influence of two different disinfection methods. It was discovered that Cordyceps militaris fungus and silkworm chrysalis medium were suitable for cultivation of Cordyceps. Furthermore, cordycepin, a Cordyceps-specific functional compound, was produced at different growth stages during different cultivation processes, even at the mycelial stage, and was found at three times higher concentrations in cultured C. militaris compared to that in naturally occurring C. militaris.
Highlights
Cordyceps is one of the most famous plant worms, and it has been used as one of the key materials in various traditional Chinese medicines for almost 2000 years[1]
21 compounds were quantified based on the 1H NMR spectra (Fig. 1), while serine, acetic acid and mannitol were not able to be quantified accurately due to heavy signal overlaps
Adenosine was only found in the extracts of O. sinensis, and cordycepin was not detected in the extracts of C. nutans and P. tenuipes
Summary
Cordyceps is one of the most famous plant worms, and it has been used as one of the key materials in various traditional Chinese medicines for almost 2000 years[1]. Among approximately 400 different species of Cordyceps[4], Ophiocordyceps sinensis, Cordyceps militaris, Cordyceps nutans and a related species, Paecilomyces tenuipes, are widely consumed as health foods and effective traditional medicines in Asia[1,2,5,6]. C. militaris, which is widely known as a rare caterpillar fungus that is found throughout the northern hemisphere, has similar biological activities to O. sinensis, including anti-oxidant and anti-apoptotic effects[1]. UV-visible spectrophotometry[16,17,18,19], such as cordycepin, adenosine, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, lipids, glycosides and minerals These conventional methods are all compound-targeted for the specific chemical characteristics of Cordyceps[16,17,18,19]. NMR-based metabolic profiling to investigate and evaluate newly improved cultivation processes of Cordyceps, which may bring potential commercial value to the industry of Cordyceps cultivation in the future were further performed
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