Medicinal uses of the mushroom Cordyceps militaris: Current state and prospects

Cordyceps militaris is a potential harbour of bio-metabolites for herbal drugs and evidences are available about its applications for revitalization of various systems of the body from ancient times. Amongst all the species, C. militaris is considered as the oldest source of some useful chemical constituents. Besides their popular applications for tonic medicine by the all stairs of the community, the constituents of C. militaris are now used extensively in modern systems of medicine. The current survey records the mysterious potentials of C. militaris are boosting up the present herbal treatments, as well as gearing up the green pharmacy revolution, in order to create a friendly environment with reasonable safety. Evidence showed that the active principles of C. militaris are beneficial to act as pro-sexual, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant/anti-aging, anti-tumour/anti-cancer/anti-leukemic, anti-proliferative, anti-metastatic, immunomodulatory, anti-microbial, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-protozoal, insecticidal, larvicidal, anti-fibrotic, steroidogenic, hypoglacaemic, hypolipidaemic, anti-angiogenetic, anti-diabetic, anti-HIV, anti-malarial, anti-fatigue, neuroprotective, liver-protective, reno-protective as well as pneumo-protective, let alone their other synergistic activities, which let it be marketable in the western countries as over-the-counter medicine. A number of culture techniques for this mushroom have been noticed, for example, storage/stock culture, pre-culture, popular/indigenous culture (spawn culture, husked rice culture and saw dust culture) and, special/laboratory culture (shaking culture, submerged culture, surface liquid culture and continuous/repeated batch culture). The prospects for herbal biotechnology regarding drug discovery using C. militaris delivering what it has promised are high, as the technology is now extremely more powerful than before. This study chiefly highlights the medicinal uses of the mushroom C. militaris including its culture techniques, also aiming to draw sufficient attention of the researchers to the frontier research needs in this context.     

Systemic activity of simeconazole and its derivatives in plants

The systemic activity of simeconazole (RS-2-(4-fluorophenyl)-1-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-3-trimethylsilylpropan-2-ol) and a number of its derivatives in plants has been investigated to establish which portion of the structure of the molecule contributes to this outstanding activity. The results revealed that the hydroxyl group of the simeconazole moiety is essential for vapour-phase activity and translocation from roots of the compound. They showed that the presence of a fluorine atom in the structure was not indispensable for vapour-phase activity or translocation from roots, although the fluorine atom contributed to these systemic movements. In addition, it was found that the fungicidal activity of simeconazole against Rhizoctonia solani Kühn and Blumeria graminis DC fsp hordei Marchal is potentiated by the fluorine atom, since the activity of a compound which lacked fluorine in the 4-position of the phenyl ring was inferior to that of simeconazole. A compound in which the silicon atom of simeconazole was replaced by a carbon atom showed lower antifungal activity than simeconazole, while phytotoxicity was caused in rice plants by soil drench of the compound. Therefore, the silicon atom of simeconazole may contribute to its selectivity between fungi and plants.     

Annual changes of testis size, seminiferous tubules and plasma testosterone concentration of wild Sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis Heude, 1884) in Hokkaido.

Testis size, seminiferous tubules and plasma testosterone concentrations showed conspicuous annual changes in Sika deer of Hokkaido, Japan. The onset of the spermatogenic process occurred in July or August. Spermatogenic activity had already reached its height in late October, at the beginning of the rutting season, and had begun to decline in late December. Spermatogenesis had stopped in February or March. Plasma testosterone concentrations showed very high levels in late October and early November, but was almost at the basal level in February, March, June and December. The wide individual variation of the plasma levels in October suggest pulsatile secretions of testosterone.     

Curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) suppress an increase in blood glucose level in type 2 diabetic KK-Ay mice

Turmeric, the rhizome of Curcuma longa L., has a wide range of effects on human health. The chemistry includes curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids as components, which are known to have antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, and antiinflammatory activities. In this study, we investigated the effects of three turmeric extracts on blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetic KK-A(y) mice (6 weeks old, n = 5/group). These turmeric extracts were obtained by ethanol extraction (E-ext) to yield both curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids, hexane extraction (H-ext) to yield sesquiterpenoids, and ethanol extraction from hexane-extraction residue (HE-ext) to yield curcuminoids. The control group was fed a basal diet, while the other groups were fed a diet containing 0.1 or 0.5 g of H-ext or HE-ext/100 g of diet or 0.2 or 1.0 g of E-ext/100 g of diet for 4 weeks. Although blood glucose levels in the control group significantly increased (P < 0.01) after 4 weeks, feeding of 0.2 or 1.0 g of E-ext, 0.5 g of H-ext, and 0.5 g of HE-ext/100 g of diet suppressed the significant increase in blood glucose levels. Furthermore, E-ext stimulated human adipocyte differentiation, and these turmeric extracts had human peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma) ligand-binding activity in a GAL4-PPAR-gamma chimera assay. Also, curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, and ar-turmerone had PPAR-gamma ligand-binding activity. These results indicate that both curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in turmeric exhibit hypoglycemic effects via PPAR-gamma activation as one of the mechanisms, and suggest that E-ext including curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids has the additive or synergistic effects of both components.     

Simultaneous Determination of Gas and Particle Dry Deposition onto Conditioned Surrogate Surfaces

Aerodynamically designed surrogate surfaces were used to determine the relative importance of gaseous (SO₂, HNO₃, NH₃) and particulate species (SO₄ ^2?, NO₃ ^?, NH₄ ⁺, Ca²⁺) in the dry deposition flux. For 11 sampling periods, we measured the deposition fluxes, ambient gaseous concentrations, size distributions of atmospheric aerosols and some meteorological parameters in Uji. The dry deposition of the gas to a nearly perfect sink was calculated by subtracting the greased surface flux from the total deposition flux to both the greased and reagent impregnated (or water) surface. It was found that the gas phase deposition contributed significantly more (60–93%) than the particulate phase to overall deposition of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. The dry deposition velocities of the species were also calculated using the deposition fluxes and the measured ambient concentrations. Comparisons were made between the measured and modeled particulate deposition flux.     

Endocarditis in chickens caused by subclinical infection of Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus

Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes endocarditis in humans and acute septicemia in domestic birds. We describe here the infective endocarditis caused by the bacterium found among clinically healthy broilers at two abattoirs in Japan. The chickens were thought to be healthy because of the lack of clinical symptoms and normal levels of mortality before slaughtering. At the time of inspection, some chickens were condemned because of organ disorders characterized by vegetative valvular endocarditis as well as focal necrosis in heart, liver, and spleen. Streptococcus gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus was isolated from the organs as a pure culture, indicating that the bacterium probably was the causative agent of the disorders. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of the isolates collected at the abattoirs from chickens grown in nine different farms indicated that the isolates were different variants of the same clonal lineage and may have been derived from the same ancestor. These results suggest that S. gallolyticus subsp. gallolyticus causes infectious endocarditis in chickens and that healthy chickens may possess the bacterium in their normal flora as an opportunistic pathogen.     

Lignans ofChamaecyparis obtusa

Heartwood ofChamaecyparis obtusa contains significant amounts of a dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan, hinokinin (8). This investigation demonstrated that the contents of 8 and a norlignan, hinokiresinol (12), were higher in the heartwood region than in the sapwood, indicating their nature of being heartwood extractives. Eleven lignans — xanthoxylol (1), 7-oxohinokinin (2), savinin (3), dihydrosesamin (4), isoactifolin (5), sesamin (6), piperitol (7), hinokinin (8), pluviatolide (9), haplomyrfolin (10), and rnatairesinol (11) — were isolated from young shoots ofChamaecyparis obtusa cv. Breviramea. Eight lignans (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9,10, and11) were isolated from this plant for the first time. Chiral high-performance liquid Chromatographie analysis showed that8, 9, 10, and11, were found to be levorotatory and optically pure (>99% e.e.). Based on the chemical structures of the isolated lignans, possible biosynthetic pathways of8 are discussed.Parts of this report were presented at the 44th annual meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Nara, April 1994; the 46th annual meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Kumamoto, April 1996; and the 44th Lignin Symposium, Gifu, October 1999