INVESTIGATION ON FRUITING BODY OF CORDYCEPS MILITARIS CULTIVATION IN TRA VINH

Cordyceps sinensis has traditionally been used in traditional Chinese medicine. However, C. sinensis has very low mass production and only grows in natural environment, whereas the fruiting bodies of Cordyceps militaris can be successfully farmed in cereals. C.  militaris contains similar biochemical components as C. sinensis as well as the anticancer component cordycepin. This study is to investigate the effect of temperature, light intensity, milling of silkworm pupae  supplemented with brown rice medium and silkworm pupae age on fruiting bodies of C. militaris. The optimal temperature for the formation of fruiting bodieswas 25oC, under conditions of 500 lux lighting. A bottle with 50 g of brown rice supplemented with 50 ml of distilled water and 5 g of milling silkworm pupae  produced 20,11 fruiting bodies with the weight of 10.14 g, Cordycepin and Adenosine obtained were 10.08 mg/g and 0.57 mg/g, respectively. From mounting, the nine-dayold pupae showed the best incidence of infection and development of fruiting bodies of C. militaris with 1.69 fruiting bodies/pupae.