Chinese medicine is well-known for items we in the
west would consider bizarre. Cordyceps
(Cordyceps sinensis (Berk.) Sacc.) can be
counted among them. Yet it is also one of the most valued
medicinal fungi in all of Chinese medicine and among the
most potent. Long esteemed as a medicinal tonic used to
promote longevity and endurance, the ancients claimed that
the “qualities” of cordyceps were like those of ginseng and
that 0.85 grams were eaten cooked in a duck, the benefits
were equal to taking a 50 gram dose of ginseng. Today,
cordyceps is cooked with chicken and with pork and is no
less regarded than in ancient times. Pharmacologists have
recently learned that cordyceps holds many of the proper-ties
indicated in folk medicine.
Cordyceps is widely employed to treat upper
respiratory problems, impotence, weakened immune
systems, and by athletes to increase endurance. Still other
contemporary traditional uses of cordyceps in China
include the relief of bronchial inflammation, and the
treatment of chronic bronchitis, pneumonia, pulmonary
emphysema and tuberculosis. To relive exhaustion or
tiredness, debility following illness, anemia, night sweats
and cough, cordyceps is traditionally taken twice a day in
the form of a simmered decoction using 3 to 9 grams of the
dried fungus. Cordyceps has a flavor reminiscent of
licorice and is highly regarded for restoring vitality in
convalescents and as a tonic for the kidneys.
COLLECTION AND HABITAT
Commonly known in China as dong zhong chang cao
(winter worm, summer grass), or “caterpillar fungus,”
cordyceps is found in the highland regions of Szechwan,
Qinghai and other provinces at locations above 11,000 feet.
A blade-like growth develops after fungal infestation of
dead caterpillar larva in summer. Cordyceps is collected in
June, July, and in the autumn when the fruit-body is seen
protruding from the ground of treed slopes where there is
decaying leaf cover, often beneath trees in loose soil, or in
pastures. In the province of Szechwan, cordyceps is more
easily harvested at elevations of 9800 feet on mountain tops
before the snow melts at summer solstice. The dark brown
blade-like growths are more easily spotted against the white
cover of snow. Cordyceps is then cleaned and dried in the
sun.
Cordyceps is parasitic on the larva of various
types of moths, but especially the bat moth (Hepialus
amoricanus Ober.). Bundles of the caterpillars with the
blade-like fungal growth protruding from their heads are
sold in the markets wrapped in bright red thread. At one
time only the emperor and the upper classes could afford
the wild fungus, which is still rare and expensive. When
collected, the whole caterpillar body is composed of
mycelium, which is the vegetative body of the fungus. All
that remains of the caterpillar is the form and outer skin.
Owing to the scarcity of cordyceps in the wilds and
increasing domestic medical demands in China, during the
1980's methods of cultivating the mycelial stage were
developed.
A RESPIRATORY TONIC
Tests have shown the mycelial form of cordyceps is just as
potent as in some cases more potent than the wild,
caterpillar-body form. At the famous Meiji Institute of
Health Science in Odawara, Japan, researchers found that
an extract of the fungus inhibited tracheal muscle contrac-tions
and relaxed the airways of rats. An extract of the
mycelia showed six times the potency of the wild fungus.
It was concluded that cordyceps can facilitate an increase
in ventilation during exercise and that the relaxing effect of
the extract on the aorta might also prevent blood pressure
from increasing.
The use of cordyceps by China’s Olympic athletes
to increase endurance may owe in part to this relaxing
effect on the airways. As reported by Newsweek (September
27, 1993), when China’s Olympic women’s running
team broke not one but three record distances at the World
Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Germany in
August 1993, rumors began to circulate of “drug” use.
Gold medals were awarded to China’s runners for the
10,000, 3,000 and 1,500 meter competitions. Weeks later
at the National Games in China in October 1993, the same
runners laid to rest another three world records, in the
course shaving 42 seconds from the 10,000 meter event,
The question raised by officials in Germany is
how could they break so many records in such a short time
without taking drugs? Their coach insisted that drugs had
nothing to do with it. The running team did recruit sports
medicine experts from East Germany and they did take a
special diet consisting of herbs and a potion made from
cordyceps. But the head of the international governing
body that polices drug violations for track teams could see
no evidence of banned substance use. The coach of the
Chinese women’s Olympic running team insisted that the
secret of their success was cordyceps, and that he expected
his team would perform even better at the 1996 Olympics.
The effects of cordyceps on the airways-lessening
their resistance to relaxing and opening-could also help to
explain the traditional use of this medicinal plant in treating
various diseases of the upper respiratory tract, such as
pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and
tuberculosis. And because cordyceps is regarded in
Chinese medicine as an anti-asthmatic, an expectorant and
as a cough suppressant, it could become an important
ingredient in herbal cough drops and cough syrups.
PROTECTING THE KIDNEY
Cordyceps is traditionally classified as a kidney tonic in
China and it has shown evidence of being just that. In rats
subjected to kidney toxicity by aminoglycoside antibiotics,
cordyceps protected the animals. This discovery was
followed by a double blind, placebo-controlled trial in 52
patients at Jinling Hospital in Nanjing, China. The patients
were hospitalized for febrile diseases or respiratory
infections, had not suffered from kidney disease in the past,
and their kidney function was normal.
After random division of the patients into two
groups, one group received cordyceps orally and the other
received a placebo. Both groups were administered
aminoglycosides intramuscularly (gentamicin in younger
patients and amikacin in older ones). Tests showed that
compared to the placebo group, the group on cordyceps
had been protected from kid-ney toxicity. Those on the
placebo had developed greatly elevated signs of kidney toxic-
ity, with readings close to double those of the cordyceps
group.
POTENTIATING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Cordyceps has been the subject of many studies in immuno-stimulation and has shown potent effects. The active
constituents are water-soluble polysaccharides. Cordyceps
stimulates various cells of the immune system, including
natural killer cells, macrophages, interleukin 1, Gamma-interferon, immunoglobulins M and G, leukocytes and
helper T cells (CD4 lymphocytes).
A study in the ability of cordyceps to stimulate
natural killer cell activity was conducted by Hunan Medical
University in 1992. Researchers found definite activation
of NK cells in cell cultures and in animals and significant
antitumor activity. Cordyceps caused significant increases
in NK cell activity in the lungs of mice and in mice with
melanoma of the lungs.
The findings were enough for them to conclude
that cordyceps could be used to potentiate the immune
systems of cancer patients and of patients with immune
deficiencies. Since low NK cell activity has been consis-tently
found in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome,
cordyceps may have clinical merit in this disease, too.
LOWERING HIGH CHOLESTEROL
The mycelial extract was tested for clinical benefits to
patients with high cholesterol in a multi-center, double
blind, placebo-controlled trial with 245 patients by Beijing
Medical University in 1990. The dosage used was 330 mg,
three times daily for two months. In the end, the average
increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL), which is the
good cholesterol in our blood stream, was significantly
higher in those on cordyceps than in those on the placebo.
In 76.2% of those receiving the mycelial extract, HDL
cholesterol had increased by an average of 27.19%. Total
cholesterol was lowered in 61.2% of the treatment group
and only in 28.8% of the placebo group. The average drop
in cholesterol was 17.5% versus 1.17% in the placebo
group. These statistically significant results with such a
time-honored, nontoxic food are a further testament to the
legacy of cordyceps as a traditional Chinese longevity
agent.
A TRADITIONAL TREATMENT FOR IMPOTENCE
ln Chinese medicine, cordyceps has a long history of use in
replenishing sperm and relieving sexual impotence. Today
the fungus is also taken by women who have been unable to conceive A placebo-controlled clinical study of the fungus in the treatment of could afford the caterpillar fungus, impotence was reported by which is still rare and expensive. investigators at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Beijing Medical College in 1985.
Patients diagnosed with “sexual hypofunction" received a
placebo, the mycelial extract or the wild fungus at a dosage
of 330 mg, three times a day for 40 days. Those on the
wild cordyceps showed improved or resumed sexual
activity in 23.68% of cases.
Those on the mycelial extract showed resumed
normal sexual activity in 28.93% of cases and improved
sexual activity in another 35.22% of cases, for a total
“effective” rate of 64.15%. Finally, in 31.57% of those
who received the placebo, sexual activity improved or was
restored. Naturally, further clinical trials will be required
to confirm these findings.
As to what might cause sexual activity to be
restored by cordyceps, recent animal studies in Japan have
shown that the mycelial extract causes the smooth muscles
of the corpus cavernosum of the penis to relax, which
would allow blood to enter to create an erection as the
blood becomes trapped. The wild cordyceps also showed
this effect, but the mycelial extract was about twice as
active.
