The Chemical composition and Biological Activities of
Cordyceps militaris
Sung Hum Yeon
Abstact
The Chemical composition and biological activities of Cordyceps militaris compared with these of Paecilomyces japonica. They were cultivated with silkworm pupae. In case of general ingredients of C. militaris, fuit-body
and host-insect contained 8.84% and 6.30% moisture, 3.29 and 2.29% curde ash,43.81 and 7013% crude protein, 1.10 and 5.56% crude fat, 11.34
and 11.78% crude fiber, and 30.97 and 3.94% carbohydrate, respectively.
In P. japonica, PJ-1, PJ-2 and PJ-3 contained 6.55, 6.34 and 5.35%
moisture, 6.39, 4.49 and 2.26% crude ash, 59.99, 66.41 and 54.25% crude protein, 6.67, 8.89 and 25.56% crude fat, 15.23, 7.64 and 10.34% crude
fiber and 20.40, 6.23 and 1.84% carbohydrate, sequentially.
In the usual order of fruit-body and host-insect part, NDF of C. militaris was 17.88 and 22.60% and ADF was 10.28 and 19.94%, respectively.In result of analyzing mineral composition of C. militaris, Al and Mn were not detected in both fruit-body and host-insect, Zn and S had similar contents.
Cu, Na, P and K contents showed that fruit-body was much more than host- insect but Mg, Ca and Fe were the reverse of former. In the case of P.japonica, 11 inorganic elements were detected and PJ-3 was not detected Al content, whereas PJ-1 and PJ-2 were detected. K, S, Mg and Ca contents of PJ-1, PJ-2 and PJ-3 showed high level.
Total and essential amino acid contents of fruit-body and host-insect of C. militaris were 171.20, 154.78mg/g and 60.50, 46.07mg/g, respectively, whereas P. japonica showed 97.33, 146.55 and 185.22 contained 17 amino acids but host-insect had 16 except for met. Whereas, in case of P. japonica, Leu and Phe were not detected all samples. His was detected a very small amount except for PJ-. Met content of PJ-1 and PJ-2 were 2.83 and 3.57mg/g but that of PJ-3 was not detected The fatty acid contents of fruit-body and host-insect of C. militaris sequentially showed oleic acid, linolenic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and palmitoleic acid and unsaturated fatty acid contents were generally higher than saturated fatty acid.
The methanol extracts of C. militaris and P. japonica were tested for their growth-inhibiting activity toward 5 human intestinal bacteria and cytotoxic activity toward 5 human solid tumor cell lines using C. militaris extract exhibited strong growth inhibition of Clostridium perfringens without affecting the growth of Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacilus casei, and Escherichia coli, whereas no growth inhibition was obtained for P.japonica extract. C. militaris extract showed the strong cytotoxic activity toward model tumor cells, A549, SK-OV-2, SK-MEL-2, XF-498, HCT-15 and activity of the compound was comparable to the most widely used cisplatin and doxorubicin.
The cytotoxic activity of P. japonica extract was lower than that of C. militaris extract. There was no antioxidant activity in extracts from C. militaris and P. japonica when tested by DPPH radical scavenging assay. Methanol extract of C. militaris and P. japonica were tested against five human solid tumor cell lines by SRB assay and C. militaris extract showed the strong activities against these model tumor cells but P. japonica showed moderate activity. There was no antioxidant activity in C. militaris and P. japonica tested by DPPH radical scavenging assay.
Purification of the biologically active constituent(s) from methanol extracts of C. militaris was done by using silica gel column chromatography and HPLC, and the isolates were bioassayed. One active isolate showed growth- inhibiting activity against C. perfringens and cytotoxic activity against model tumor cell lines. Structural determination of the isolate were made by special analysis(UV, EL-MS, FAB-MS, and 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR), and it was characterized as cordycepin. On the basis that C. militaris-derived materials exhibited potent growth- inhibiting activity against C. perfringens and strong cytotoxic activity against model tumor cell lines, these results may be useful as a new preventive agent against disease caused by intestinal harmful bacteria such as clostridia and a naturally occurring agent.