Cordyceps, a plant of the genus Hydrostaphylla in the ergot family, is a dried complex of the daughter seat of Cordyceps parasitica on the larvae of bat moths and larvae. Its gas slightly fishy, taste slightly bitter, sweet, flat, back to the lung, kidney channel, with beneficial lung tonifying kidney and phlegm hemostasis effect.

In 1723, a European missionary brought to France a strange creature that looked like both an animal and a plant from the alpine meadows of northwest China. The famous scholar Rene Antoine introduced it to everyone at the academic congress of the French Academy of Sciences. For a time, this strange creature caught the public's attention, that is, cordyceps sinensis. Now we know that the so-called cordyceps is a kind of fungus called cordyceps parasite in the body of the insect formed a combination. When the ascospores of the fungus plant parasitize the larvae of the cordyceps bat moth, they begin to quietly absorb the nutrients in the larvae. When the weather is cold, the larvae burrow into the earth in the autumn to survive the winter. At this point, this is a real bug. From the outside, it looks like any other larva. When the ascospores of the fungus form mycelium in the worm, the pace of absorption of nutrients is accelerated. The mycelium inside the worm constantly forms a hard sclerotium. By the next summer, the sclerotium grew from the head of the worm a rod-like "grass", the upper part of the rod-like structure expanded, the surface grew many small spheres, and the ascospores were hidden inside the spheres. After the ascospores are released, they continue to infect the larvae of the cordyceps bat moth, and the next year, the "grass" grows, and the cordyceps continues to thrive. Cordyceps sinensis lives in undergrowth and grassland on mountainous undergrowth slopes and semi-undergrowth slopes at an altitude of 3600 ~ 4500 meters in Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou, Qinghai, Gansu and other places. There the soil is rich and the moisture is right, which provides good growing conditions. As a rare medicinal material, cordyceps has a strong and nourishing effect, which can benefit the lung, kidney, hemostasis and phlegm. It contains protein, amino acids, sterols, mannitol, alkaloids, polysaccharides and minerals, and the important component is cordycepic acid.

Cordyceps sinensis extract

The bioactive extracts of Cordyceps sinensis often have complex components, and it is difficult to determine whether they are a single component or a multi-component synergistic system, and the mechanism of their bioactivity has not been explained from the molecular level. There are various methods for preparing cordyceps sinensis extracts, and the components and contents of extracts prepared under different conditions are different. Extracts of different components may exhibit different biological activities.

Traditional cordyceps medicinal materials are applied to its dry products, such as the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, which describes it as "drying until 60 to 70 percent dry, removing fibrous attachments and impurities, drying in the sun or low temperature." The content of active components of cordyceps sinensis was affected by different drying methods.

In the preparation of cordyceps sinensis extract, the most common way is to soak. In order to improve the leaching efficiency, some auxiliary means can be used, such as thermal reflux, ultrasonic and so on. By comparing the common heavy metal elements, fingerprint and some major/different components, it was found that the extraction solution prepared with ultrasonic method had better stability and uniformity, and more kinds of bioactive compounds were extracted. It is worth noting that higher temperatures may lead to the loss of certain heat-sensitive substances.

The most common solvent for preparing cordyceps sinensis extract is water. When water is used for extraction, different PH conditions may still lead to different extraction results. In addition to using water alone as a solvent, cordyceps sinensis can also be extracted using a mixed solvent of water-organic solvent. In addition, some organic solvents can also be used to prepare cordyceps extract, such as using ethanol as a solvent can obtain the extract with a higher content of total phenols and total flavonoids.

Pharmacological effect of cordyceps sinensis extract

1. Protective effect on cardiovascular system
Cordyceps sinensis water extract can slow down heart rate, increase cardiac output and coronary flow; Intraperitoneal injection of cordyceps sinensis and cordyceps sinensis water extract can prolong the survival time of mice with normal pressure hypoxia after isoproterenol injection. Subcutaneous injection of cordyceps alcohol extract can increase the intake of myocardial 86Rb and increase myocardial blood supply in mice. Artificial Cordyceps mycelium alcohol extract and fermentation liquid also have a certain protective effect on stress myocardial infarction induced by thyroxine and norepinephrine. Cordyceps sinensis powder or cordyceps sinensis powder or subcutaneous injection of cordyceps alcohol extract can significantly reduce serum cholesterol content and plasma β-lipoprotein. Intravenous injection of cordyceps alcohol extract can significantly prolong the incubation period, shorten the duration and reduce the degree of arrhythmia induced by aconitine in rats.

2. Immune enhancement
The phagocytic function of mononuclear macrophage system can be significantly enhanced by subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injection or intramuscular injection of cordyceps sinensis alcohol extract or water decoction in mice. The volume and nucleus of macrophages are enlarged, the cytoplasm is enriched, the particles, vacuoles, phagosomes and lysosomes in the cytoplasm are increased, and the content of lysozyme in serum is increased. It can also antagonize the inhibition of cortisone on the phagocytosis function of macrophages. Administration of cordyceps in rabbits can promote the transformation of lymphocytes, and intraperitoneal injection in mice can enhance the activity of acid esterase in T cells, increase the content of nucleic acid and protein in spleen, and increase the formation rate of E-rosette in T cells in spleen. It also antagonized the decrease of spleen weight and the decrease of E-rosette formation caused by prednisolone and cyclophosphamide. Cordyceps sinensis or cordyceps sinensis can also increase serum immunoglobulin G in normal, Yang deficiency and Yin deficiency mice.

3. the impact on endocrine
Cordyceps sinensis and cordyceps sinensis aqueous extract can increase the seminal vesicles of castrated juvenile male rats, showing androgen-like effects; In Chemicalbook male mice, cordyceps sinensis and cordyceps sinensis aqueous extract were given by gavage, which could increase the plasma cortisol content. Can also increase adrenal cholesterol content, make adrenal weight; Cordyceps has an androgen-like effect and can prevent and treat yang-like deficiency mice caused by hydrocortisone acetate.

4. the impact on kidney function
Clinical use of artificial cordyceps preparations for chronic nephritis patients, the results show that it can reduce nephritic proteinuria, increase serum zinc content, reduce copper/zinc ratio, and make hematuria significantly better.

5.anti-tumor effect
Cordyceps sinensis water and alcohol extract can inhibit the growth of S180 sarcoma, Lewis lung cancer and mA-737 breast cancer in mice. Mycelium significantly inhibited S180, S37, EcA and P388 in mice. Cordyceps sinensis and Cordyceps sinensis water extract can not only inhibit the growth of S180 tumor in mice, but also enhance the anticancer effect of cyclophosphamide.

6. Effect on respiratory system
Cordyceps sinensis water extract can significantly enhance the secretion of adrenaline, relax bronchial smooth muscle, dilate bronchus, remove phlegm, relieve asthma and other effects, and has a good therapeutic effect on diseases such as cough sputum blood, tuberculosis and chronic bronchitis.

Cordyceps sinensis extract active ingredient

Many studies on Cordyceps sinensis and its extracts have shown that cordyceps sinensis contains a large number of bioactive substances, and the quality of extracts may be different when using the extracts, affected by the quality of the medicinal material itself and the control of extraction process parameters. In addition, due to the limited sources of cordyceps, large-scale sustainable extract production is limited. Therefore, it is necessary to further isolate and purify the extract of Cordyceps sinensis and determine its active ingredients.

1. Peptide substances
Cordyceps polypeptide was isolated and purified from dried fruit bodies of Cordyceps sinensis. The therapeutic effect of cordyceps polypeptide was evaluated in diabetic osteoporosis rat model. The results showed that the cordyceps polypeptide could alleviate related symptoms, prevent bone loss, reduce antioxidant activity in vivo, and inhibit the expression of related markers of bone resorption.

2. Cordyceps polysaccharide
Polysaccharide has a variety of physiological activities, cordyceps polysaccharide is a very important component of Cordyceps sinensis. Using fresh Cordyceps sinensis as raw material, Cordyceps sinensis crude polysaccharide was obtained by defatting, extraction, precipitation, deproteinization and dialysis. Activity test showed that it could significantly promote the proliferation of RAW246.7 macrophages and release NO and TNF-α, which had a good immunomodulatory effect.

3. Active protein components
In the experiment, the protein components of Cordyceps sinensis were extracted by liquid nitrogen grinding and cold extraction, and the protein was further separated. The results of cellular immune activity in vitro showed that cordyceps protein components had a bidirectional regulation on the secretion of TNF-α, IL-1 and IL-12 factors by macrophages, suggesting that it had a bidirectional regulatory immune effect.

Conclusion

With the deepening of research, the potential of cordyceps sinensis has been continuously tapped. At present, researchers have found many pharmacological effects and physiological activities of various cordyceps extracts. However, the composition of most extracts is still more complex, affected by the quality of the medicinal material itself and the extraction process, the quality and activity of the extract to maintain uniformity and stability is difficult. Therefore, the raw material quality standards, extraction production technology and quality control methods of extracts need to be scientifically tested and rigorously demonstrated.