Traditional Medicinal Uses

The inhabitants of China, Tibet, Nepal and India have consumed Cordyceps spp. for centuries in order to adapt their bodies to difficult high mountain conditions such as low ambient temperature, high atmospheric pressure and reduced oxygen content in the environment. Traditional Chinese medicine recommends the use of Cordyceps spp. for treating several human disorders such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, disorders of the liver and kidney, cancers, diabetes, infectious and parasitic diseases and sexual dysfunctions.

Of all the traditional uses that Cordyceps is noted for, perhaps the one that is best known is the relief of fatigue. There is an ancient legend told in the Himalayas, relating the way Cordyceps was originally found; it is a legend from a long time ago when the tribes’ people of Tibet and Nepal took their animals into the high mountain pastures for springtime grazing. There they would see goats and yaks grazing on some sort of a small, brown grasslike mushroom, growing from the head of a caterpillar. After eating this strange-looking creature, the animals would become frisky and start chasing the other goats and yaks around with lustful intent. This added vigor must have looked pretty attractive to those tribes’ people, so they started collecting these small mushrooms and eating them as well. They also became frisky, even a bit lustful, or so the story goes (Holliday 2017).

References:

• Das SK, Masuda M, Sakurai A, Sakakibara M. Medicinal Uses of the Mushroom Cordyceps militaris: Current State and Prospects. Fitoterapia (2010) 81:961–968.
• Holliday J. Cordyceps: A Highly Coveted Medicinal Mushroom. In Medicinal Plants and Fungi: Recent Advances in Research and Development; Springer: Singapore (2017) pp. 59–91.