CHARACTERIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF CULTURE CONDITIONS OF CORDYCEPS SINENSIS
Santosh Kumar Singh, Brijmohan Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Amir Khan and R.N. Singh
Abstract
In previous few decades, many organisms inhabiting both terrestrial as well as aquatic habitats have been target of researchers for various uses in medicines. Both lower plants as well as higher plants have been analyzed widely and are being used for the production of secondary metabolites. Cordyceps sinensis is a medicinal mushroom put into endangered category due to its uncontrolled exploitation and harvesting from its natural habitats. The fungus has a rare modified nucleoside Cordycepin, being used in many medicinal formulations. The authors have collected and characterized various isolates of Cordyceps from high altitude regions and optimized its culture conditions for its use in suspension culture and mycelia production. It was observed that the standard pH conditions and input of nitrogen compounds in the potato dextrose medium elicit mycelia production rate in suspension cultures. Though the high level of associated microbial flora makes it difficult in identification and purification of the cultures, but use of elicitors in suspension cultures for specific metabolites could be of great use on economical scale.