Table 2.
Summary of various pharmacological and therapeutic effects of Cordyceps sp.
| Pharmacological effect | Active content of Cordyceps | Animal/tissue studied | Active dose | Experimental time period | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-angiogenic | Cordyceps militaris Extract (CME) | HUVECs | 100–200 mg/L | After 3–6 h | Yoo et al. (2004) |
| Anti-tumor/anti-proliferatory | Cordyceps militaris protein (CMP) | MCF-7 (breast cancer), 5637 (bladder cancer) and A-549 (lung cancer) | 15 μM | 72 h | Park et al. (2009a, b, c) |
| Aqueous extract of C. militaris | Nude mice with NCI-H460 cell | At 150 and 300 mg/kg/day | 4 weeks | Park et al. (2009a, b, c) | |
| BuOH extracts of C. militaris grown on germinated soybean (GSC) | HT-29 human colon cancer | 100 μg/ml | 48 h | Mollah et al. 2012 | |
| Cordycepin | Mice | 150 mg/kg body weight | 7 days | Jagger et al. (1961) | |
| 5637 and T-24 (bladder cancer) KB and HSC3 (oral squamous cell carcinoma) | 200 μm | 24 h | Lee et al. (2011a, b) | ||
| 50 and 30 μM, respectively | 48 h | ||||
| Anti metastasis | WE of C. sinensis | LLC and B16 cells | 100 mg/kg in LLC, 100 or 200 mg/kg in B16 | 20 and 26 days | Nakamura et al. (1999) |
| Cordycepin | 5637 and T-24 cells | 100 and 200 μM | 48 h | Lee et al. 2010 | |
| Induce apoptosis | etOAc extract of C. sinensis | HL-60 cells | ED50 ≤25 μg/ml | 2 days | Zhang et al. (2004) |
| Aqueous extract of C. militaris | MDA-MB-231 | 0.8 mg/ml | 24 h | Jin et al. (2008) | |
| Paecilomyces hepiali (derivative of C. sinensis) extract | A549 | 2–4 mg/ml | 48–72 h | Thakur et al. (2011) | |
| Water extract of C. militaris | A549 | 2 μg/ml | 48 h | Park et al. (2009a, b, c) | |
| Cordycepin | MA-10 | 100 μM to 5 mM | 24 h | Jen et al. (2008) | |
| SW480 & SW620 | 2 and 0.72 mmol/L, respectively | 72 h | He et al. (2010) | ||
| MDA-MB-231 | 100 μM | 24 h | Choi et al. (2011) | ||
| U937 and THP-1 | 30 μg/ml | 24 h | Jeong et al. (2011) | ||
| SK-NBE(2)-C and SK-Mel-2 (HTB-68) | 120 and 80 μM, respectively | 24 h | Baik et al. (2012) | ||
| Anti fatigue | Polysaccharide | Mice | 200 mg/kg | For 21 days | Li and Li (2009) |
| Anti malaria | Cordycepin | Erythrocytic stages of P. knowlesi (in vitro) and P. berghei (in vivo) | In vitro 106 M and in vivo 50 mg/kg | In vitro 4 h | Trigg et al. (1971) |
| Anti fungal | Cordycepin | Murine Model | 1.5 mg/kg/day | 30 days | Sugar and Mccaffrey (1998) |
| Hypolipidemic | Exo polysaccharide | Rats | 50–100 mg/kg | 2 weeks | Yang et al. (2000) |
| Increase hepatic energy metabolism and blood flow | Cordyceps sinensis Extract | Mice | 200 mg/kg/daily | 4 weeks | Manabe et al. (2000) |
| Immunomodulatory | Polysaccharide from C. sinensis | Human peripheral blood | 0.025–0.1 mg | – | Kuo et al. (2007) |
| Purified Cordycepin from C. militaris | Mouse splenocytes | 5 μg/ml | 72 h | Ho et al. (2012) | |
| Anti inflammatory | C. militaris water extract | Murine macrophage | 1,250 μg/ml | 24 h | Jo et al. (2010) |
| Constituents isolated from C. militaris | LPS/IFN-γ stimulated Macrophage cells | Ranging from 6.3 to 20 μg/ml | 24 h | Rao et al. (2010) | |
| Anti Diabetic/Hypoglycemic | C. militaris extract reduce oxidative stress, induced by high glucose concentration | HUVECs | 25 μg/ml | 12–36 h | Chu et al. (2011) |
| Fractions of C. militaris as CMESS and Cordycepin | Mice | 50 and 0.2 mg/kg, respectively | 7 days | Yun et al. (2003) | |
| Crude extract and polysaccharide rich fraction | Rat | 10 mg/kg of polysaccharide and 100 mg/kg body weight of crude extract | 4 days | Zhang et al. (2006) | |
| Spermatogenic | CM mycelium powder | Sub fertile boars | 10 g/boar | 2 months | Lin and Tsai (2007) |
| Steroidogenesis | CS | Normal mouse leydig cells | 3 mg/ml | 2–3 h | Huang et al. (2001) |
| Cordycepin | MA-10 mouse leydig tumor cells | 100 μM | 24 h | Pan et al. (2011) | |
| Anti-aging | CSE | Mice | 2.0, 4.0 g/kg | 6 weeks | Ji et al. (2009) |
| Cordycepin | Human dermal fibroblasts | 50–100 μM | 24 h | Lee et al. 2009a, 2009b | |
| Anti-fibrotic | EPC from C. militaris | Rats | 30 mg/kg/day | 4 weeks | Nan et al. (2001) |
| Cardiovascular effects | Cs-4 | 1–15 min | Zhu et al. (1998b) | ||
| Relax aorta | Isolated aorta | 50 μg/ml | |||
| Lower blood pressure | Dogs | 60 mg/kg | |||
| Increase coronary blood flow | Dogs | 0.425 g/kg | |||
| Lower heart rate | Dogs | 0.425 g/kg | |||
| Against arrhythmia | Dogs | 0.25–0.5 g/kg | |||
| Against myocardial ischemia | Rabbits | 150 mg/kg | |||
| Against platelet aggregation | Platelet | 2–4 mg/ml | |||
| Against thrombosis | Rabbits | 30 μg/kg/min | |||
| Renal protection | Cordyceps Powder | LN Patients | 2–4 g/day cordyceps powder, and artemisinin 0.6 g/day | 3 years and observed consecutively for 5 years | Lu (2002) |
| Erythropoiesis | Cordyceps sinensis crystal (CS-Cr) | LACA Mouse, in vivo and vitro | >150 mg/kg (vivo) 150–200 μg/ml (vitro) | 5 consecutive daily treatment | Li et al. (1993) |