Doubled production of cordycepin analogs in cultured Cordyceps militaris by addition of Andrea droppings

Abstract

Cordyceps sinensis is a traditional Chinese medicine with various biological activities. With its limited natural supply, cultured C. militaris has become the major alternative source, and the culture conditions may affect the chemical compositions. To improve the production of chemical ingredients, C. militaris was cultured with three different media, including rice only, rice plus 3% tea leaves, and rice plus 3% droppings of Andraca theae. The fractions of dried C. militaris cultured with rice were chromatographic separated to afford ten compounds: phenylalanine, dimerumic acid, nicotinic acid, tryptophan, N⁶-(2-hydroxyethyl)-adenosine, uracil, uridine, cordycepin, ergosterol, and mannitol. Of these, in the cultured medium of rice plus 3% Andraca droppings, the amount of one major compound cordycepin is about two folds than the highest reported data, and dimerumic acid and N⁶-(2-hydroxyethyl)-adenosine were isolated for the first time from this species.

Keywords:

• Cultured Cordyceps militaris
• Clavicipataceae
• cordycepin
• enrichment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grant 1052101011303-130302T1 from Council of Agriculture, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.