ABSTRACT
The common name in China, dongchongxiacao, meaning summer-plantwinter-worm, can be traced to a belief in ancient China that the embodiment of the fungus returned to an insect in winter if it was not picked in summer when it transformed into a blade of grass (Lloyd, 1918). The wild fungus (attached to the naturally myceliated larvae of caterpillars) is sold as a medi cine or food in small bundles tied with thread. Its use as a food and a medi cine in the Orient has continued for millennia. In China, cordyceps is eaten in soups (Pegler et al., 1994; Chamberlain, 1996) and cooked with meats, including pork, seafood, and poultry (Zhu et al., 1998a). When cooked with duck (8.85 g) and administered to elderly patients recovering from illness, the effect is said to be equal to that of 50 g of ginseng (Ying et al., 1987; Liu and Bau, 1980). When cooked with pork, cordyceps (15-30 g) is used to treat impotence and anemia (Yen, 1992). Boiled together with pork, it has been used to cure opium dependence and as an antidote for opium poison ing. Added to chicken and pork, it has been used as a tonic and mild stimu lant by “convalescent persons” to rapidly restore them “to health and strength” (Gist Gee, 1918, p. 767). Recently, cordyceps has been used as part of a dietary supplement regime by Chinese athletes (Gordon, 1993; Creadon and Dam, 1996).
