Cordyceps Cs-4

   Cordyceps Supplement (Cs-4)

The Cordyceps mushroom was once reserved exclusively for the emperors of ancient China because of its scarcity. The imperial family took Cordyceps mushroom extract as tonic drink because of its evident ability to replenish energy, improve endurance, and stimulate the immune system.*

   Cordyceps Mushrooms & Health

In traditional Chinese medicine, Cordyceps Sinensis extract is used as a remedy for chronic and consumptive cough, kidney problems, and emphysema. It has also been regarded as an aphrodisiac and treatment for impotence.*

Today, Cordyceps supplement is commonly used as a male sexual tonic, and to support respiratory, adrenal and immune health. Cordyceps are used as sexual tonic in TCM because it is said that it can rejuvenate men’s sex drive and sexual stamina. Moreover, it may promote respiratory health by helping relax the bronchial walls and is used by some to treat respiratory diseases such as asthma.*

   Cordyceps Mushrooms & Sports

Used to increase energy and endurance, Cordyceps has become the supplement of choice among world class competitive athletes. In fact in 1993, China’s Wan Jun-Sha broke the world record for the 10,000 meter run by an astonishing 42 seconds at the World Track and Field meet in Stuttgart, Germany. When asked how she was able to perform such astounding feat, she gave credit to rigorous training and Cordyceps mushroom extract intake.

Moreover, because of the adrenal support Cordyceps extracts provide, it may be especially useful for people who are under significant stress.* Drinking Cordyceps Sinensis extract helps balance the HPA axis which provides a calming effect on the nervous system, resulting to fatigue and anxiety reduction as well as promotes better sleep.

Like the other medicinal mushrooms, Cordyceps must be prepared as a hot water extract to be effective for supporting immune health.  The beta glucan rich polysaccharides that provide the immune benefits are locked up inside of indigestible cell walls, and the only way to break these compounds out in to a bioavailable form is through hot water extraction.*

The Mushroom Science Cordyceps Cs-4 extract is guaranteed to contain a minimum of 24% polysaccharides and .25% adenosine, making it the most potent Cordyceps supplement sold in North America. Take advantage of the benefits being offered by Cordyceps supplement now! Call us at 1-888-283-6583 to order!

Cordyceps is unique among medicinal mushrooms.  Like all mushrooms defined as “medicinal”, the cell walls of Cordyceps contain the immuno-modulating beta glucans that support immune health.  However, when properly extracted, Cordyceps supplements also provide adenosine, nucleosides and other active compounds, providing significant health benefits beyond immune support.*

It is these other active compounds that are responsible for the many different health benefits reported in the literature; help with adrenal fatigue, balancing the HPA axis, supporting kidney and respiratory health, increasing energy and stamina and enhancing the male libido.*

WILD FRUIT BODIES vs. CULTIVATED MYCELIUM

Hot water extracts of wild Cordyceps fruit bodies and hot water extracts of the cultivated Cordyceps Cs-4 mycelium have demonstrated equal levels of immune activity, with neither one considered to be superior to the other for immune support purposes.*

This equality of effect for immune support purposes is due to the fact that the levels of the immuno-modulating beta glucans are fairly consistent from one strain to another within the Cordyceps sinensis species.* 

However, while the levels of beta glucans are fairly consistent strain to strain, the levels of the other active compounds, the adenosine and the other secondary metabolites, can vary dramatically from one strain to another, from one wild fruit body to the next.  

It is these other active compounds, the secondary metabolites, that are responsible for the other non-immune related health benefits attributed to Cordyceps extracts in the herbal and scientific references.*

The wild harvested Cordyceps fruit bodies are also very expensive, costing over $1,000.00 per kilo, too expensive to be used as a raw material in a 20:1 extract.  

This is why researchers set out to find a strain of Cordyceps mycelium that could be grown using submerged/liquid cultivation methods, and a strain that would produce effective levels of all the active compounds found in the Cordyceps fruit bodies, including the secondary metabolites.

This turned out to be far more difficult than first imagined.  It took years, and the cultivation and chemical analysis of 100’s of different strains of Cordyceps sinensis before researchers found the Cs-4 strain.

To date, Cordyceps Cs-4 is the only strain of Cordyceps mycelium that has been independently confirmed to produce all of the active compounds found in the wild harvested fruit bodies used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  This includes the secondary metabolites essential to providing the full range of health benefits attributed to Cordyceps extracts in the herbal and scientific literature.  

This explains why the vast majority of the modern clinical research has been conducted with hot-water or hot-water/ethanol extracts of the Cs-4 strain of Cordyceps mycelium produced through liquid/submerged culture.   

Our Cordyceps supplement is a hot-water/ethanol extract from the mycelium of the Cs-4 strain of Cordyceps (mycelium produced through liquid culture, not grown on rice).  This guarantees that the MushroomScience Cordyceps supplement is capable of delivering the many diverse health benefits Cordyceps is rightly famous for. At 24% polysaccharide content MushroomScience offers the most potent Cordyceps extract in North america.

HOW IS THE CORDYCEPS MYCELIUM CULTIVATED?

Mycelium is the part of the mushroom organism that you can not see.  It is a network of thread like strands that grow beneath the soil, inside of trees, or in the case of Cordyceps, inside of caterpillars.  Mycelium is referred to as the “vegetative” stage of the organism while the mushroom is referred to as the “fruiting” stage.

In the wild, the caterpillars crawl through their natural habitat, the grass that grows in the high elevation mountain meadows of the Himalayas.  In this grass they rub up against the spores released by the Cordyceps fruit body (spores are analogous to seeds).  

The spore then starts the growth of mycelium, inside the caterpillar, slowly colonizing the caterpillars’ body and eventually killing it.  The mycelium then consumes the caterpillar, using this food energy to produce a long slender fruit body that resembles a blade of grass.  This fruit body then releases more spores and the process starts over.  This process is described in the translation of the Chinese name, “winter worm summer grass”.

The mycelium used as the raw material for the Cordyceps extracts studied in the published research was all produced through a process called liquid culture or submerged culture. 

An enclosed stainless steel tank, also known as a bio-reactor is, is half filled with water and added nutrients, usually a mixture of various grains.  This mixture is cooked for a period of time, usually 3-4 hours, until a nutritious broth is created.

This medium is then sterilized and allowed to cool, at which point a piece of living Cordyceps Cs-4 mycelium is added to the tank.  As long as the medium is sterile, the broth is stirred or agitated, and the CO 2 is vented out, the mycelium grows through the liquid broth.

It takes 48-72 hours for the mycelium to completely grow through and consume all the nutrients in the tank, at which point the mycelium is filtered out, dried and then extracted with hot water, like any other dried and ground up mushroom powder.

When mycelium is grown in liquid there is no solid medium that the mycelium needs to be separated from prior to hot water extraction, so it is the perfect process for growing mycelium for the manufacturing of dietary supplements.

MYCELIUM ON RICE?

Growing mycelium on a solid medium such as rice is called “solid state fermentation”, a process that when completed, does produce mycelium, but still leaves half of the rice undigested.  This is typically done inside of heat resistant plastic bags so the rice can be sterilized prior to inoculation with the Cordyceps mycelium.

In this solid state fermentation process the Cordyceps mycelium will only colonize approximately half of the rice, however, it is not possible to separate the mycelium from the remaining undigested rice.  This in turn makes it impossible to use mycelium grown on rice as a raw material for hot water extraction. 

If mycelium grown on rice is introduced to hot water in an extraction process, the remaining undigested rice in the mixture turns into a gluey sticky substance, which in turn makes any of the remaining steps in the hot water manufacturing process impossible.

This is why it is impossible to make an effective hot water extract from mycelium grown on rice. 

Cordyceps is one of the most valued medicinal mushrooms in all of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  Cordyceps is sweet and acrid in taste and warm in nature, acting through the lung and kidney channels.  Cordyceps invigorates the kidneys and protects the lungs.  Cordyceps is also used in cases of fatigue, sexual impotence and night sweats.*  For most conditions Cordyceps is prepared as a decoction (hot-water-extract or tea), although when used as a tonic in TCM the fruit bodies are often cooked into a chicken broth.