The answer as to why we don't grow Cordyceps mushrooms is simple, but the explanation is a longer conversation.
We don’t grow Cordyceps because we would be profiting from a misconception that Cordyceps mushrooms “give you energy, boost your stamina, reduce inflammation, enhance your immune system etc.” (it’s a lengthy list of copy/pasted marketing claims).
In a nutshell, Cordyceps militaris – aka Cordyceps - don’t offer those health benefits in any perceived measure. By contrast, Cordyceps sinensis – aka Ophiocordyceps sinensis (the rare and prohibitively expensive variety) - does offer those benefits but it’s not what you’re getting in your [relatively] inexpensive off-the-shelf medicinal mushroom product.
Read on...
As organic mushroom farmers, my partner [Jahdi] and I are devoted to the wellbeing of our environment. That being our beautiful farm, from the soil to the trees and everything in between (mushrooms included). So, what goes into our mushrooms as they grow and the mushroom remedies we make from them gets heavy scrutiny.
My duty-of-care as a community herbalist dictates that I research the herbs I work with – to know their actions, applications, healing benefits, contraindications, case studies proving efficacy, where they grow in the wild and how they’re cultivated commercially.
As a result, I’m a diehard advocate for the protection of endangered and at-risk herbs. Of which, there are many and that list is growing due to the insatiable demand from the pharmaceutical and supplement/wellness industries.
NOTE: For your knowledge, in Western Herbalism and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), mushrooms are classified as herbs.
As I mentioned, the name “Cordyceps” can refer to several different varieties, but Ophiocordyceps sinensis is the species that grows in the wild. And because of the surging popularity and demand for Cordyceps mushrooms, it’s pushed the market price of wild Cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) to nearly AUD$80,000 per kilogram!
Wild Cordyceps (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) is a parasitic fungus that emerges from a ghost moth larva. The process beings with the lava being infected by the fugus spores, mycelium starts to grow inside of the larva from which the Cordyceps mushroom or fruiting body (which the edible part of a mushroom is called) emerges usually from the head of the larva.
Sadly (but also thankfully), Ophiocordyceps sinensis is now classified as “vulnerable and at risk from over harvesting and habitat loss” due to human consumption.
So, to cater for the continued demand of this fungus - based on what it promises to do for your health - the dietary and food supplement market is dominated by the lower-cost alternative which is abundantly and sustainably available as commercially farm/lab raised Cordyceps militaris.
There is a big difference between Cordyceps grown in the wild and those grown in a lab or commercial mushroom farm. That being, the wild fungus contains high-levels of a natural compound with health-giving benefits, and the lab-grown/farmed version does not.
Cordyceps grown in the wild as nature intended, offer significant medicinal potential due to the bioactive compound cordycepin. BUT only from the fungus grown in the wild which we know is rare and not the same fungus that is being commercially grown on a mass scale for general consumption.
Cordyceps’ grown in a lab – or modern-day indoor commercial mushroom farm - on grains such as brown rice possess ineffectively low levels of cordycepin. The reason being that the protein content of rice and other grains is not high enough to feed the Cordyceps.
Investigation showed that the key to cordycepin production was the fat content of the insect, not protein (which is the food source offered by a rice grain or similar substrate).
“Cordyceps grown on edible insects contained approximately 100 times more cordycepin compared to Cordyceps on brown rice,” said Professor Mi Kyeong Lee of Chungbuk National University.
In summary, the reasons mentioned above are the primary reasons we opted not to grow Cordyceps. But I will fill you in on another issue with lab-grown/farmed Cordyceps mushrooms that you might be interested to know.
According to the American Herbal Products Association’s Herbs of Commerce, Cordyceps militaris is being adulterated to enhance its performance and make it look like its wild grown cousin.
A spokesperson of the Association said, “adulteration of cordyceps comes in many shapes and forms.”
“In some 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.”
As for Cordyceps mushroom products that can be bought in Australia, you’re either getting an Aussie-grown ineffective product offering no more than a placebo effect, or a potentially adulterated imported one that offers the same outcome (regardless of any organic certifications that may be on the label).
As mushroom farmers who make our own products from the mushrooms we grow, growing Cordyceps is off the cards. If we can’t make a product that’s effective, we won’t make it at all. Nor would we import a potentially adulterated or fraudulent mushroom product and stick our label on it, nor attempt to pay an exorbitant price for a mushroom 'at-risk' in its ecosystem!
Sidebar: We purchased a kilo of commercially farmed Cordyceps mushrooms (pictured above, minus the amount I consumed as tea) for an experiment where I drank a long brewed/decoction of Cordyceps tea every day for nearly three months. During the experiment I drank no other types of tea or coffee and noticed no medicinal/physiological effects or health benefits.
Vanessa Lahey Copyright 2024