Cordyceps militaris

[Mystic Wolf]

Cordyceps militaris: “The Club-headed Soldier Mushroom”
Cordy means swollen or club, and cep is head. Militar- means soldier-like, as in the military.
Yet again, this name makes perfect sense when you consider the morphology of this fungus.
This herb is also referred to as “Himalayan Viagra” or “Himalayan Gold” due to its broad clinical and commercial value (Devkota 2006). Cordyceps and its product have remarkable clinical health effects including action on hepatic, renal, cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, sexual, immunological systems, besides having anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities (Zhou et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2011; Lee et al. 2011a, b; Zhang et al. 2012; Patel and Goyal 2012; Yue et al. 2012). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909570/

Purified bioactive compounds from Cordyceps militaris extracts which displayed potent growth inhibition on nitric oxide, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-12 production from LPS/IFN-γ-stimulated macrophages, along with anti-proliferation effect against human cancer cells, viz. prostate (PC-3), colon 205 and hepatoma (HepG2) cells. Kim et al. (2010) investigated the effects of polysaccharide Cordlan isolated from C. militaris on dendritic cell maturation.
The defect of dendritic cell maturation in tumor microenvironments is an important immunological problem limiting the success of cancer immunotherapy. The result indicates its potential as an immune activator or anti-cancer drug (Kim et al. 2008). Park et al. (2009) investigated the anti-tumor effect of C. militaris in NCI-H406 cell-transplanted nude mice. Treatment with cordycepin from C. militaris significantly inhibited human leukemia cell growth in a concentration-dependent manner by inducing apoptosis. Cordycepin induces apoptosis of human leukemia cells through a signaling cascade involving a ROS-mediated caspase pathway (Jeong et al. 2011).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909570/