Detailed Explanation of the Key Points of Artificial Cultivation Techniques for Cordyceps sinensis
Is there artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis now? Is artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis very difficult? Wild Cordyceps sinensis is truly very rare, and people are now researching how to carry out artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis. In recent years, research on artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis at home and abroad has been carried out extensively and in depth, but under completely artificially controlled conditions, research on infecting host larvae with Cordyceps fungus so that they can produce the same fruiting bodies as natural Cordyceps has still not achieved a breakthrough. Let us take a look together below!
Can Cordyceps sinensis be artificially cultivated?
Since Cordyceps has such great medicinal value and is so scarce in nature, can it be artificially developed? The answer is yes. At present, there are mainly the following three methods or approaches in the industry:
1. Artificial cultivation of “Cordyceps sinensis”: Theoretically speaking, a phenomenon like fungal infection of larvae is actually very easy to achieve in the laboratory: just simulate the living environment of the Cordyceps bat moth and then directly inoculate the larvae with a specific strain. However, this is limited only to small-scale experiments. If it is scaled up for production, there will be many technical problems. A brief introduction will follow.
2. Cordyceps mycelium culture. This means directly isolating the Cordyceps fungus strain, culturing it artificially, obtaining the product, and then carrying out artificial development. On the market it is also often called “artificial Cordyceps sinensis.”
3. Looking for substitutes with the same medicinal functions as Cordyceps sinensis, such as Cordyceps militaris, also known as northern Cordyceps sinensis, which is also a precious medicinal fungus. The fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris produced mainly from rice and silkworm pupae are priced at about 600—800 yuan per kilogram, and Cordyceps militaris produced from silkworm pupae with the pupae and stroma as one body is priced at a minimum of about 1000—1500 yuan per kilogram, much lower than Cordyceps.
Main techniques for artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis
1. Fungus strain: The fungus strain mostly comes from natural Cordyceps sinensis and is obtained by conventional isolation and culture. According to research, during the occurrence of the sexual stage of Cordyceps fungus, a certain humidity is needed to meet the water requirements of the complex physiological changes in the body, and there is a correlation between temperature and humidity. Under a certain humidity, if the temperature changes slowly or remains relatively constant, it is not conducive to the extraction of fruiting bodies. The occurrence of the sexual stage must go through low-temperature and variable-temperature treatment. After many years of tube transfer culture, the Sanming Fungus Research Institute of Fujian Province also only grew incomplete young stromata. They believe that the generation of Cordyceps fungus must involve certain active substances from bat moth larvae in order to be completed.
2. Techniques for breeding bat moths: The Sichuan Provincial Institute of Chinese Materia Medica has conducted long-term research on artificial rearing of bat moths. Even under constant temperature conditions, it takes 230-570 days to complete one generation, let alone properly handling the specific operations of each insect stage as well as feed and the rearing environment. Such harsh conditions are impossible for ordinary people to achieve.
3. Infection route: Cordyceps sinensis only grows fruiting bodies after Cordyceps fungus spores contact larvae, infect them, and cause death. According to observations, the infection rate is highest in host larvae of the 4th-5th instar. Older mature larvae are rarely infected, and larvae below the 3rd instar are not infected. How to grasp the timing is also very difficult for ordinary people to master. On the issue of infection, if the conditions for artificially breeding insects are relatively good, the insect body is too strong and has strong antibacterial ability, making it difficult to infect. If the conditions are poor, then after the insect fungus invades it causes death. The appearance of either of these two situations will lead to failure.
4. Simulating the ecological environment of the production area: that is, the conditions of temperature, humidity, light, soil, vegetation, and so on found on high mountains at an altitude of 3500-5000 m. This is also difficult for ordinary people to achieve. It is precisely for these reasons that ordinary people absolutely cannot grow Cordyceps sinensis. Claims about how much yield can be harvested in a very short time are all deceptive. Even so, why are there still some reports of successful artificial cultivation in some newspapers and magazines? In fact, what they describe is merely mycelium culture of Cordyceps sinensis or culture of related species of Cordyceps sinensis, not true Cordyceps sinensis. Recently, scientists such as Hiroki Sato of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute of Japan announced that cultivating Cordyceps sinensis requires only one and a half months. In fact, what he cultivated was only a kind of Cordyceps militaris, also not true Cordyceps sinensis.
The above are the main contents of some key points of artificial cultivation of Cordyceps sinensis. Cordyceps sinensis is a traditional precious medicinal material in China, distributed in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, and other places, and has special pharmacological effects and therapeutic efficacy. If artificial cultivation can be developed, it will be a major development!