According to the recent American Botanical Council’s annual “Herb Market Report”, cordyceps supplements are predominantly sold in the Natural Channel of retail trade, where cordyceps was the 26th top-selling herbal supplement ingredient in 2023 with $5,225,915 in sales. The products are marketed to support kidney, immune and cardiovascular health, enhance athletic performance and increase endurance.
The cordyceps bulletin is the 29th publication in the series of Botanical Adulteration Prevention Bulletins (BAPB) and the 91st peer-reviewed document published by BAPP. Importantly, the cordyceps bulletin is the first BAPP document focusing on a fungal ingredient.
Market dominated by lower-cost alternatives
The new Bulleting from the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) documents the many ways in which the fruiting body and mycelium of cordyceps are mislabeled and/or adulterated.
Harvested from the wild, this parasitic fungus consists of a club-shaped, spore-releasing fruiting body that emerges from a ghost moth (Hepialus spp.) larva. That is, spores of cordyceps infect the larva, and the fungus then develops via fungal mycelium that grows inside the larva. This process culminates in the emergence of the fruiting body from the larva’s body (usually the head).
While the name “cordyceps” can refer to several different fungal species, Ophiocordyceps sinensis is the primary species that grows in the wild. However, due to the high costs of wild cordyceps (up to $50,000/kg), the cordyceps dietary and food supplement market is dominated by lower-cost alternatives such as commercially raised Cordyceps militaris or Paecilomyces hepiali (reclassified as Samsoniella hepiali in 2020).
According to the third edition of the American Herbal Products Association’s Herbs of Commerce, both Cordyceps militaris and Paecilomyces hepiali can be marketed in the United States using the common name “cordyceps.”
The new bulletin, authored by Christopher Hobbs, PhD, Roy Upton, RH (AHG) and Stefan Gafner, PhD, explains that adulteration of cordyceps comes in many shapes and forms. For example, in Asian countries where wild cordyceps is sold at high prices, the undeclared addition of pieces of sticks or wires, and soaking the fungus in concentrated mineral solutions to increase the weight have been reported.
In other instances, cordyceps look-alikes are made from flour and dyes, which are modeled into a caterpillar shape with sticks glued onto the fraudulent material to imitate the cordyceps fruiting body.
In Europe and North America, economically motivated adulterants in cordyceps dietary supplements include different fungal species (e.g., Tolypocladium inflatum), grain-based media that contain little or no cordyceps mycelium, or undeclared excipients or fillers. Only recently, artificial commercial cultivation yielding a product similar to wild cordyceps has been developed.
A challenge to write
Commenting on the new bulletin, Dr. Gafner, ABC’s chief science officer, said: “This has been a challenging bulletin to write, especially figuring out what is currently offered as ‘cordyceps’ in various regions around the globe. For me, the main takeaway for the dietary supplement industry is that better methods to authenticate the various products marketed as cordyceps are needed.”
Hobbs concurred, noting: “This was a complex and challenging process from start to finish. Research on the related genera Cordyceps, Ophiocordyceps and Samonsoniella, and others, as well as the nature of the traditional Tibetan medicine yartsu gunbu (the Tibetan name for the medicine, also known as dōng chóng xià căo) were and are still undergoing rapid change.
“New research, particularly our ability to identify and characterize DNA sequences from a complex soil microbiome and delineate the genera and species growing on the surface of wild cordyceps, has allowed analytical labs to accurately identify the genera and species in commercial products,” he added.
“This has led the way to the understanding that the most popular commercial ‘cordyceps’ products sold in China, other Asian countries, the United States and Europe come from a variety of species with differing chemistry, pharmacological properties and potential benefits.”
Hobbs said that he hopes the new bulletin will help consumers, manufacturers, practitioners and researchers understand the origins and biology of these fascinating traditional medicines, along with considerations of the design and conduction of further studies to help define the potential efficacy and range of health benefits of these traditional products as well as how to produce them in the most efficacious way.
Source: Botanical Adulterants Prevention Bulletin from the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program
“Cordyceps botanical adulterants prevention bulletin”
Authors: C. Hobbs, R. Upton, S. Gafner
