Current Progress Regarding Cordyceps militaris, Its Metabolite Function, and Its Production

Abstract

Cordyceps militaris is a valuable medicinal fungus which has been widely used as a traditional medicine in East Asia. Compared to the well-known medicinal fungus C. sinensis, C. militaris can produce similar fermented metabolites with various biological activities, but it requires a shorter culture time and simpler culture conditions, and therefore, it has attracted increasing attention in recent years. The purpose of this review was to organize the current studies regarding metabolite production from C. militaris relative to their biological functions. We combined findings of metabolite production to correlate with different fermentation modes to obtain a full view of production processes used to yield the product. While research on C. militaris fermentation is not uncommon to date, its high value still highlights the importance of developing more modern fermentation processes for industrial production.