Comparison Of Nucleosides And Related Compounds In Natural And Cultured Cordyceps

Cordyceps sinensis, a well-known and valued traditional Chinese medicine, is a composite consisting of the stromata of the fungus, Cordyceps sinensis (Berk.) Sacc. (Fam. Hypocreaceae) parasitized on the larva of some species of insects (Fam. Hepialidae), and the dead caterpillar. Due to pretty high values in health food produces and drugs of Cordyceps, which is sweet in taste and neutral in nature, the yield of the wild resources of Cordyceps. sinensis (natural Cordyceps. sinensis) is decreasing every year because of excessive collection. Isolation of mycelial strain from Cordyceps is a trend of many scientists to achieve a large scale production of Cordyceps by fermentation. Besides cultivation of Cordyceps (cultured Cordyceps. sinensis) by fermentation technology, much effort has also been focus on discovering the alternative species (cultured Cordyceps. militaris) emerging on the market. Thus, there are main three types of Cordyceps in the marker at presence. To date, nucleosides are believed to be the active components in Cordyceps, adenosine has been used as marker for quality control of Cordyceps. sinensis regulated in Pharmacopeia <2005> of Chinese. However, it is hard to discriminate natural and cultured Cordyceps. Evan, this methods can not provides enough evidence in the evaluation of cultured Cordyceps. So, to develop a effective method in quality control of three types of Cordyceps(natural Cordyceps. sinensis, cultured Cordyceps. sinensis and Cordyceps. militaris) is a critical task at presence.In this study, several analytical methods have been used to compare the profiles of nucleosides in natural and cultured Cordyceps. A simple and rapid high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method was developed for qualitative and quantitative determination of nucleosides, bases and their analogues in natural and cultured Cordyceps. in qualitative, our results showed that 43 compounds, including 27 unknown, as well as cytosine, uracil, cytidine, hypoxanthine, guanine,...