11 replies to this topic

[DarkSpark]

was reading the news on my phone when i came along this article about the yarsagumba fungus. Thought some may find this interesting. I would be curious to see its efficacy. Sounds kind of gross though the way it is "born" but i guess magics grow in turd and people eat them(rebels)

From May to July every year, dozens of Nepalise fungus collectors scale up the Himalayas to find a rare caterpillar fungus believed to be an immunity booster and aphrodisiac.
Reuters reports the rare fungus is created when a spore attacks a caterpillar, killing it and creating the yarsagumba fungus which grows out of the insect's body.
The fungus is especially popular in Chinese medicine, fetching more than $US100 per kilo due to its many medicinal benefits.
'It is an aphrodisiac, it is used as a tonic, for vitality. Recent research also showed that it is useful for anti-tumour, and anti-aging drug,' Cordyceps research student Uttam Babu told Reuters.
The exportation of the fungus was only legalized in 2001 and since then sales have skyrocked, particularly in China.
Dipendra Bhandari, a film director who made a movie on the collecting of yarsagumba, explains the reason behind the super fungi's popularity.
'It's known to be used in Chinese traditional medicines since 1500 to 2000 ago. Speaking with various people during my research, I am told they use it mainly for the sexual powers,' he told Reuters.

http://bigpondnews.c...ess_778122.html

[nabraxas]

some really good info on the Cordyceps sinensis fungus (yarsagumba) here:

http://www.shaman-au...is&fromsearch=1

[space cadet swami]

I was wondering why I was feeling more antsy...must be that fungus on my nads...lol

[Bigred]

do you think you could pf tek it

[Hyphal]

A hunt in the Himalayas -

http://www.shroomery...00/fpart/1/vc/1

Edited by Hyphal, 08 August 2012 - 11:14 PM.

[ErraneousHerbalist]

Isn't that the fungus that the Chinese reporter reported on but was actually a fleshlight? *giggles*

Sounds interesting though, I shalt have a looksie~

[Bread Filter]

Isn't that the fungus that the Chinese reporter reported on but was actually a fleshlight? *giggles*

Sounds interesting though, I shalt have a looksie~

It wasn't a Fleshlight. It was a very cheap masturbation sleeve.

[C_T]

koda sells it in capsules.

[shonman]

Hmm.....it would be a goldmine to be able to cultivate these,
Ideally without the caterpillar....
When I was in "Chinatown" I saw a small bottle in a Chinese med. store labelled
'tree frog and caterpillar fungus"
Yuk! I thought...who would eat such a thing....and who was the first person to think of it, and try it?
I wonder if its price would be diminished, without the caterpillar part.
People are funny that way....
Perhaps the caterpillars could be raised, then infected with the fungus.
This might raise certain ethical questions among more sensitive types.....
Deliberately infecting living creatures to die a certain death, for profit, etc.
Although, this is happening in nature......nature is impartial, mostly....
perhaps even as cruel as she is beautiful and loving sometimes....
This reminds me a bit if when I had a pet snake as a kid....
In order to be nice to the pet, and have it live....
I was directly responsible for the death of a number of mice and rats.
For a while I gave them a chance to survive, letting them and the snake go loose in my room.
Until one day the snake missed and it's teeth stuck in my carpet, then I had to work them loose by hand...
.....not pleasant....
Not sure how I would feel about infecting the caterpillars, but probably not too bad....
Hmm.....looks like it can be cultivated, using 'silkworm juice'...
This would be a good one to grow..the most expensive medicinal substance in earth,
some sources claim...

Edited by shonman, 29 March 2013 - 12:18 AM.

[shonman]

Very informative......from http://www.pharmaceu...idcordyceps.htm With this realization in mind, we set out on a mission. To produce the best Cordyceps possible. What is the best? Since we did not know the answer to that question, we decided to try to copy the natural, wild collected Cordyceps as closely as possible. We attempted this by altering the substrate composition and analyzing the resultant mycelial product for known bioactive compounds. Then altering the substrate again…and again…and again. We did this through several hundred different substrates and through many thousands of kilograms of resultant product.  What we found was that there was not any single method, strain or substrate we could use that would yield the results desired. SUBSTRATE: The substrate of choice for most Chinese growers is a liquid media based upon silkworm residue, with added carbohydrates and minerals. This seems a logical choice, since this mushroom is found in nature growing on insects. Dried silkworm bodies are the by-product of an existing industry and have little other use. Therefore they are readily available and cheap. This silkworm-based substrate seems to yield a relatively high quality product. The only problem with silkworm- residue based substrate is that in the United States, the FDA requirements are for mycelial products to be produced on a normally consumed human food source. Silkworms do not fit into that category. They are also not available as a raw material source to most of the worlds Cordyceps cultivators. The most usual substrate for Japanese and American growers is rice. It was determined in our trials that rice is not a suitable substrate for Cordyceps production if the target medicinal compounds are considered. Rice does not allow the full range of secondary metabolites to be expressed by the fungus, and rice grown Cordyceps has tested inferior in all of our analyses of active ingredient. There is rarely any appreciable amount of Adenosine or Cordycepin present in rice-grown Cordyceps. Furthermore, there are growth-stunting metabolites which build up in the substrate when Cordyceps is grown on rice, limiting the growth stage to only about 22-24 days, and allowing no more than about 40% of the rice to be converted into mycelial mass. This figure of 40% represents the high end of conversion, and is usually around 25-30%. This means that when Cordyceps is grown on rice then dried and powdered, the resultant product is actually about 60-75% rice flour. Rye grain is another substrate often used for solid culture, and it yields a higher quality product than rice, as long as a source of vegetable oil as an amendment is added to the growth medium at the time of substrate makeup. The oil provides necessary nutrients, which the organism utilizes for bioactive compound production. Rye has other disadvantages though. The compounds in rye, which give it that characteristic rye smell and taste, are not broken down by the Cordyceps and they concentrate in the final product. This rye taste and smell overcomes the characteristic Cordyceps taste and smell, and even though the resultant product is of better quality than the rice grown mycelium, there are certain perceptual problems that needs to be overcome by the buyer to make this an economical alternative. Rice-grown Cordyceps may seem like a better product to the average buyer because the rice does not mask the characteristic Cordyceps smell and taste. Most buyers in the health supplements industry tend to purchase bulk products on perception and faith rather than requiring an independent analysis. Rye also has growth-limiting factors, which causes the Cordyceps growth to stunt at about 28-30 days, although this can be overcome to a slight degree with the addition of about 1% ground oyster shell buffer to the medium at time of make-up. We tried many other sources of calcium, but they did not seem to work as well as the oyster shell calcium. Millet is a very good choice of substrate when it is available. It has no strong taste or smell of it’s own, it does not stunt the growth to any significant degree and it allows for the full expression of the secondary metabolites by the organism. It has another problem though, which is the high ratio of chitinous outer husk layer to starch. This outer husk is not broken down and represents a large portion of the final product weight, about 15%. The chitinous husk cannot be removed from the grain ahead of time, since doing so allows the grain to become too sticky during sterilization and a high degree of anaerobic contamination follows. The husk can be removed from the final product through mechanical means such as a time-of-flight separation, or the product can be used for hot water extractions or other processing. Cordyceps does not grow as fast on millet as it does on other grains, but the end product quality is higher. White milo grain, also known as white kaffir corn or white sorghum is an excellent choice of substrate. The red variety of milo does not work nearly as well as the white variety as a substrate. White milo has all of the best characteristics; it is cheap, it has a high starch/husk ratio, it does not stunt the growth, it allows the full expression of bioactive compounds and has no strong odor or taste of its own to compete with the taste and smell of the resultant Cordyceps product. White milo when used alone however lacks some essential ingredients required for optimum growth by the Cordyceps. The addition of some portion of millet to the white milo speeds up the growth by a factor of 6 times. The millet to milo ratio is optimum at 1 part millet to 4 parts white milo. Many farmers grow both white milo and the red milo in the same fields, or store them in the same silos, or otherwise do not keep the white and red separated. This is to be avoided when used as a Cordyceps substrate, since a small proportion of the red mixed in with the white can drastically reduce the growth rate and overall quality of the final product. So from our substrate testing it was determined that the ideal medium for solid substrate growth of Cordyceps is as follows: 1 part white proso millet (husk on) to 4 parts of white milo (husk on), with the addition of 0.8% w/w of ground oyster shell and 1% w/w vegetable oil (peanut oil or soybean oil). Add water to equal 50% total moisture in the sterilized substrate. Precooking the grain mixture for 4-6 hours prior to sterilization tends to trigger a much faster growth response from the Cordyceps. On this medium, Cordyceps can be grown for long periods of time, allowing nearly complete conversion of the substrate to mycelium and the full expression of secondary metabolites from the Cordyceps. The resultant Cordyceps when grown on this substrate is about 3-4% residual grain, or about 96-98% pure mycelium. The real benefit to this method of growing is the capture of the entire compliment of extra-cellular metabolites produced throughout the entire growth process. With the addition of certain growth triggering compounds to this mixture, Cordyceps sinensis is easily induced to fruit in culture without any insect material being present. However the formation of the fruitbody on this medium does not result in any significant change to the analytical chemistry profile. CULTURE PARAMETER MODIFICATION: LOW TEMPERATURE HYPOXIA Using the above-described substrate, the complete chemical profile of the cultivated Cordyceps still will not approach that of the wild collected Cordyceps unless it is grown under very specific conditions. Cordyceps sinensis produces a relatively large amount of free Adenosine when grown at normal atmospheric oxygen levels and room temperatures. It will also produce a large quantity of Uridine and Guanosine. But there is very little if any Cordycepin produced, and virtually no Hydroxyethyl Adenosine. For the organism to produce these compounds, it needs to be growth-stressed through the absence of oxygen, a drop in temperature and the total absence of light. Just growing it under cold and anaerobic conditions from the start will not do the trick, since when Cordyceps is grown under those conditions it forms a yeast-like anamorph that has a very different chemical profile. It must first be grown hot and fast, then tricked into converting its ‘summertime’ metabolites into the target medicinal compounds we are looking for. To get these target compounds, we found that we needed to follow a strict growth protocol: After inoculation on to the millet/milo substrate, the Cordyceps is grown at 20-22 degrees C, in diffuse light and at sea level atmospheric oxygen for 28-30 days. It is then moved into a specially controlled environmental chamber, where the oxygen is dropped to 50% atmospheric. The remainder of the growth atmosphere is made up of Nitrogen, Carbon monoxide and Carbon dioxide. The temperature is dropped to 3 degrees C, and all light is excluded. It is held under these conditions for about 15-20 weeks. This results in much of the Adenosine being converted to Cordycepin, Dideoxy-adenosine and Hydroxyethyl-adenosine. Many other unique nucleosides are also produced, with a final chemical profile identically matching that of the wild Cordyceps as can be clearly seen in Plot 6.

[shonman]

That paper referenced above, also discusses hybridizing strains by using rattlesnake venom in agar!

[SallyD]

Mushrooms to make you horny ?

 

It seems a bit weird to me, but I didn't grow up with pictures of chairman Mao on every street corner to give me a soft on.

 

Anything in a skirt does it for me  

 

Well - almost anything.

 

Even the undie section in a big W catalogue can set me off.