Nucleosides from the Fruiting Body of Cultured Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis

Abstract:

Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis, an entomogenous fungus found in Northwestern Yunnan, China, is a parasite of Hepialidae larvae. A rapid high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed to simultaneously determine the content of ten nucleosides (uracil, inosine, 2'-deoxyuridine, uridine, guanosine, adenosine, adenine, thymidine, 2'-deoxyadenosine, and cordycepin) in the Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis fruiting body, cultured in four different media. To conduct a preliminary quality evaluation of the cultured Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis fruiting body, it was compared with wild Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis cultured in a medium with rice and silkworm chrysalis powder as the major ingredients had an average growth period of 40 days, which was shorter than that observed with three other culture media. Additionally, adenosine and total nucleoside contents in the cultured Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis fruiting body were 2744 and 8015 μg/g, respectively, which were considerably higher than those in wild Ophiocordyceps sinensis and Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis. Thus, the fruiting body of cultured Ophiocordyceps lanpingensis has significant research value and application potential.