The June 9/10, 2010 International conference onOphiocordyceps sinensis (冬虫夏草, Yartsa Gunbu, Caterpillar fungus) hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and co-sponsored by the Center of Grassland Monitoring and Management and WWF was held in Xining, Qinghai Province PRC. Down below some articles to download.

Check out the subtitled photo report on the 2010 Cordyceps Tour

Here my updated conference contribution for downloading:

  "CaterpillarFungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis)Production and Sustainability on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas"
(last version 6-11-2010).

I will write more about the conference soon.

Furthermore, here for download a recently published PDF article on Cordyceps sinensis in somewhat a travelogue form with focus on Yartsa gunbu in Northwest Yunnan. Here the full reference: "Winkler, D. 2010. Cordyceps sinensis - A precious parasitic fungus infecting Tibet. In: Field Mycology 11.2: 60-67."

I found my biggest caterpillar fungus ever in Xining!

Rongpatsa, Kandze / Ganzi County June 2, 2010

Yartsa Gunbu season is peaking in Tibet right now. I heard from Kandze / Garze / Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture [TAP, Sichuan] that the harvest is going well and that the price is higher than last year. I am glad to hear that. I was a bit worried, when I heard about the persistent drought in Yunnan. I was wondering if that drought would extent into the mountains of the upper Mekong catchment. However, already in the context of the devastating earth quake in Jyekundu / Jiegu / Yushu [see the links for donations below] there were reports of rains in Jyekundo. I hope to be able to report via this blog from my Cordyceps tour when we cross Kandze and Golok / Goluo [Qinghai] TAPs. I have to see how accessible the net will be in the Tibetan hinterland.


For the time being, I will post some links in here on this years reporting on Cordyceps. Each year we see more reports on the phenomena (see below). When I first got into caterpillar fungus it was such an exotic thing and I had a really hard time figuring out what I had encountered on the alpine pastures in Bachen in early June 1997. Of course the value was nowhere near where it is now, high up in the sky, but still the income from Yartsa gunbu was already very important back then and many communities relied on it as one of their main cash sources.

Now onto the reporting in the media:
A short clip in French "Les Cordyceps du Qinghai will introduce you to Yartsa gunbu harvest and trade in Qinghai:

An unnamed researcher from Beijing's Tibet Research Center (CTRC) has published an article "Tibet enters Cordyceps sinensis collection peak" on this years collection in Tibet AR including some interesting figuress" "Tibet enters cordyceps sinensis collection peak"

In China Daily Daniel Chinoy published an interesting 3 page article entitled  "Rare fungus faces extinction " on April 15,. Much of the article is on the sourcing of Chinese medicinal material, its value and problems regarding sustainability, but a good junk is dedicated to dongchong xiacao = Caterpillar fungus. One page talks about collection and dealing in Qinghai and photos show Hui collectors and dealers. Chinoy quotes Yang Darong's absurd claim without naming him as his source, that nowadays only 10% are left of the production commonly harvested 20 years ago. As discussed earlier in this blog, this claim is not supported by real data.

Last, but not least, I discovered Shiva Devkota's blog spot with lots of interesting articles on Cordyceps and other fungi in Nepal and the Himalayas. Check it out!

An article on Cordyceps sinensis in Science [Science 322:1182, 21 Nov 2008] reported Chinese entomologist Yang Darong's claim that currently only 3-10% of Cordyceps can be harvested what used to be harvested 20 years ago. This outrageous claim was published without consulting any other researchers on this issue. I wrote a letter to the editor that did not get published. Down below the long version of this letter.

My Reply to Science:

I am very glad to see that Science took up the issue of Yartsa gunbu, summer grass-winter worm, as the Tibetans know Ophiocordyceps / Cordyceps sinensis for at least over 600 years. I am confused why Yang uses the Maori term aweto, which is coined for a New Zealand species. I rather use the Tibetan term Yartsa gunbu, since it also includes the larva and not only the fungus. In addition the Chinese term dongchong xiacao is most likely a literal translation of the original Tibetan term.

I definitely share the concern regarding the sustainability of current Yartsa gunbu harvest intensity. However, Yang Darong's claim that there is only 10% left of this resource is an extraordinary claim and I think we would need to see the data to support such an extraordinary claim. In an earlier South China morning post article Yang was quoted: " Where there used to be 40 specimen per square meter there is now only 5 fungi". That must have been a very special square meter with such a fungal population density! Definitely not the common patch found by many of the Tibetan collectors. Also Yang states, there used to be a production of 1000t per year on the Tibetan Plateau. I really would love to see the base for this figure. At 1000t, mind you, we are talking about roughly 3 billion specimens. At an overall population of 6 million Tibetans on the Plateau, Yang is suggesting a family with 6 members on average needed to collect over 3000 specimens, impossible! To approach this claim from another angle, a 1989 report from the Plateau Biology Research Institute in Lhasa estimated total potential production of about 70t annually for Tibet AR, and reported an average annual harvest of around 13-15t between 1957-1983. TAR provides around 30-50% of the annual production, thus an overall Plateau production total not even close to 100t. In addition, I have interviewed through the years many Tibetan collectors and Tibetan, Chinese and Hui dealers on the Plateau. None of them had reported a substantial reduction in production. All collectors pointed out how they find less caterpillar fungi, but attributed that to the fact that there are so many more collectors. Also, most interviewees pointed out that there are good years and bad years when collecting fungi. Official TAR production figures from 1999 to 2004 indicate an annual harvest between 25 to 50t, the 2006 figure is 38t, nowhere a production crash documented on the scale Yang and his team is claiming.

In trying to make his case of a total resource crash Yang is using the change in value as another indicator. He is stating that 25 years ago he could have traded a bag of salt for a bag of Yartsa gunbu. This reflects much more on the economic situation in China back then than the availability of Yartsa gunbu. Its main consumers are now rich and upper middle class Chinese, a segment of society not in existence in China outside the party structures [the government is still the biggest single buyer of caterpillar fungus in TAR and NW Yunnan. It uses them as presents for visiting officials and as New years presents for its members, a special perk for anybody working in Tibet]. Also, in the 60 and 70s Tibetans had to collect Yartsa gunbu for the government. Per capita quotas had to be filled annually without real payment, which surely ruined the price. Economic reforms only came slowly to the Tibetan areas in the 1980s, but caterpillar fungus prices rose quickly.

Back to the present (= late 2008), this collection season prices peaked, but in recent weeks for the first time in more than a decade Yartsa gunbu prices have decreased substantially. The loss of 20-30% indicates clearly prices were fueled by the coastal economic boom and the availability of discretionary spending rather than reduced harvest level. 2008 was an average harvest and the price decline seems much more connected to the Shanghai stock market crash and the global financial crisis, since Yartsa gunbu has turned from a medicinal tonic into a status symbol in recent years.

I doubt the extent of Yang Darong's extraordinary claim for another reason. Ophiocordyceps and its host, the ghost moth [Thitarodes spp.] are both at the end of their life-cycle. The larva is already killed by the fungus, and the fungus will die off after sporulation. Thus, as long as there are enough spores released, reproduction should be secured. The fact that Yartsa gunbu has been collected for centuries and is still present in areas where intense collection has been carried out suggests that it is a rather resilient organism. A more detailed analysis can be found in Winkler, D. 2008. Yartsa Gunbu (Cordyceps sinensis) and the Fungal Commodification of the Rural Economy in Tibet. In: Economic Botany 62.3.

But we really need long-term fieldwork, something I am sure Yang Darong agrees to. We need to find out if we can come up with harvesting schemes to minimize negative impact an this organism, which has turned into rural Tibet's most important cash source. Some areas derive 80-90% of their cash income from yartsa gunbu. On TAR average it is 40%, contributing more value to the TAR GDP than the industry and mining sector! [ Winkler 2008].

Here the full reference: Stone, R. 2008: Last Stand for the BodySnatcher of the Himalayas? In: Science 322:1182 [21 Nov 2008] www.sciencemag.org

Most of you have heard about the awful, devastating 7.9 earthquake on April 14th, 2010 that destroyed 80-90% of the buildings in Jiegu, the prefectural town of Yushu / Gyegu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.  Many people were killed, the current official estimate is over 2000 people. Many residents escaped with just their clothes they were wearing and have lost everything at a time were night frosts are still common for quite awhile.

Yushu Prefecture is a predominately Tibetan region on the border ofQinghai, Sichuan and the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The biggest city isGyêgu (Jiegu township, also written Jeyku = Jyekundo = Yushu), a cityof  probably 80.000 inhabitants. Gyegu is one of the most importantYartsa Gunbu / Cordyceps sinensis market places and has prospered fromthat trade in the past. I have been there four times and had scheduledthe 2010 Cordyceps Tour to visit Jyekundo's Yartsa Gunbu market.However, after the devastation of the earthquake that makes no sense. SoI decided I rather donate and write this entry to help people findgreat conduits for help.

The need for humanitarian help is enormous. Funds are needed for immediate reliefsupport and rehabilitation in the medium and long term.  Down belowlist of small and mid-size, trustworthy and effective NGOs that  haveworked in Eastern Tibet for years. 

Yushu Earthquake response   with daily updated information. These are several Jyekundo based NGOs that partnered up for the relief effort

Kilung Earthquake Relief Appeal  working from neighboring Sershul / Sequ Donate by Papal 

Machik Washington DC based NGO working in Kham

ASIA , Italy based NGO with charity status also in Conway MA & Germany

The Bridge Fund US based NGO working in Tibetan areas

Many Chinese and Indian research papers on Cordyceps / Ophiocordyceps still identify the host larvae as belonging to the genus Hepialus. However, since 1968 Hepialus L. is a monospecific genus containing only the European ghost or swift moth Hepialus humuli.

Most former High Asian Hepialus were transferred to Thitarodes Viette back then. In 1968 China had other problems than keeping track of entomological taxonomy, but more than 40 years after the transfer it should be time to follow suit.

Here a more detailed explanation by Dr. Gaden Robinson, an specialist on Hepialidae at the natural History Museum in London. I had asked him to write this short note last year to be included in Andreas Gruschke and my upcoming anthology on Cordyceps sinensis.

Dr. Robinson wrote:

The generic name Hepialus has been restricted in its application to a single European species - Hepialus humuli - for some forty years. The genus Thitarodes was erected in 1968 to (at the time) accommodate "Hepialus" armoricanus (note correct spelling) and another dozen or so related species placed originally in Hepialus and which have nothing whatsoever to do with that genus.

Unaware of  recent literature, Chinese entomologists began describing species, associated with Cordyceps, in the genus Hepialus in the mid-1980s. By 1999 there were about three dozen recently-described Chinese ghost-moths from the provinces of Tibet AR / Xizang, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan and Gansu that were erroneously placed in Hepialus. However, it is certain that some of these "new species" had already been described by European authors or by other teams in China.

David Wagner, the late Ebbe Nielsen and I (Nielsen et al., 2000) tried to sort it out as best as we could and we published the results in 2000, transferring the Chinese "Hepialus" to Thitarodes to join their congeners. At this point there were 51 described and named species in Thitarodes but, as said above, some of these will prove to be synonyms. The name Thitarodes is well-established and I recommend the use of Thitarodes for all Chinese species described as "Hepialus". In the final analysis, it is still by no means clear which species of Thitarodes are associated with 'commercial' Cordyceps sinensis.

Nielsen, E.S., Robinson, G.S. & Wagner, D.L. 2000. Ghost-moths of the world: a global inventory and bibliography of the Exoporia (Mnesarchaeoidea and Hepialoidea) (Lepidoptera). Journal of Natural History, 34: 823-878.

Viette, P.E.L. 1968. Contribution à l'étude des Hepialidae (36ème note) : Lepidoptera Hepialidae du Népal. Khumbu Himal., 3(1): 128-133.

Fast forward to 2010:

A very interesting article "Hot of the Press" on two newly described ghost moths in the context of the Bhutan Cordyceps field study:  

Maczey, Norbert; Kuenzang Dhendup, Paul Cannon, Nigel Hywel-Jones, & Tek Bahadur Rai 2010. Thitarodes namnai sp. nov. and T. caligophilus sp. nov. (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae), hosts of the economically important entomopathogenic fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis in Bhutan. Zootaxa 2412: 42-52.

 

A recent Photoshop artwork I made.

June 8-10, 2010 an international conference on Cordyceps sinensis (冬虫夏草, Yartsa Gunbu, Caterpillar fungus) jointly organized by WWF and the Grassland Center of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture will be held in Xining, Qinghai Province PRC.

There is an English language webpage on SourceJuice announcing the conference.

For details send an email to Liu Qizheng at liuqizheng@agri.gov.cn.

For the Chinese webpage click here:
                                      年冬虫夏草国际会议   中国 • 青海 • 西宁   2010年6月8～10日

Also I will be spending two weeks before the conference on the high altitude grasslands of the Eastern Tibetan plateau as part of this year's MushRoaming Cordyceps tour. We will start on May 26 in Chengdu, Sichuan and travel overland to Xining arriving there on June 7 to disband on the June 8. During the tour we will visit Cordyceps markets, join local collectors in their hunt, fit in a day or two of morel hunting and enjoy everything else Tibet has to offer in regard of culture and nature.

Thailand's the Nation reported on Jan 30, 2010: A Thai doctor yesterday claimed he could make a fungus that can cure several diseases and enhance men's sexual potency like Viagra Dr Somyos Kittimankhong, a senior official with the Department of Disease Control, said he had not found any Internet search results showing that the caterpillar fungus, which is priced at several millions of baht a kilo, could be made to germinate in captivity, which he said he had done. [.........] Somyos said he spent three years of trial and error and several millions of his own baht trying to make the fungus germinate before he found out recently that Thai jasmine rice, mixed with other nutrients and some vitamins as plant foodstuff, could make it germinate. The fungus used was bought from China and kept in a refrigerator modified to a steady temperature. The doctor said he was thinking about making profit from his discovery but had not yet thought about registering it. --end--

Photo of a natural fruiting body growing out of the ground in Tibet. Kongpo Barla, Tibet AR, June 2006. (c) Daniel Winkler

If this story holds true - APPARENTLY IT DOES NOT - this would be a major breakthrough in the cultivation of Ophiocordyceps / Cordyceps sinensis. Many people are growing the mycelium, but so far no one succeeded in getting the mycelium to grow stromata, the fruiting bodies as part of artificial cultivation of this medicinal fungus. I had seen semi-artifically grown stromata in 2003 in Dartsedo / Kangding (Ganzi / Garze Tibetan Aut. Prefecture, Sichuan), but they were grown on larvae of Thitarodes ghost moth (see picture below). However, this project never managed to scale up and produce big quantities for whatever reason.


Cordyceps grown in shoe box-sized plastic tubs. Photo: Daniel Winkler in Dartsedo / Kangding (Ganzi / Garze Tibetan Aut. Prefecture, Sichuan), April 2004.
My biggest worry back then as now is that the artificial production of Yartsa gunbu will undermine income for rural Tibetans. I rather have a million of marginalized people earn some cash than one company making millions. However, many Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for the natural product collected in the wild, so even if these cultivation techniques succeed the bottom should not fall out of the market. Moreover, if Cordyceps lives up to the hype created around it, the natural product alone will not suffice in the future to satisfy demand. Still it is to early to judge.

On a more funny note, if you want to read some absurd statements from a UKMedix webpage that seems to be sponsored by Pfitzer pushing Viagra check this out.

Largest Cordyceps sinensis market in Tibet to open The Meibang Cordyceps sinensis Market located at the Economic and Technological Development Zone in Lhasa is under construction and is expected to start business officially in this June after finishing construction in May, sources from departments concerned on March 9.  It is estimated that 10 tons of cordyceps sinensis will be dealt in the market with the turnover of 1 billion yuan every year. And more than 350 job opportunities will be offered when the market opens.
According to professionals, the annual trading volume of Cordyceps sinensis in Tibet ranges from 40 to 50 tons and the Meibang Cordyceps Sinensis Market with the annual trading volume of 10 tons has great potential. This market will also increase rural people's income and boost the standardization of Tibet's markets as strict measures will be taken for quality control and price monitoring after the Meibang Cordyceps Sinensis Market becomes operational.
--end--


Here a picture of the old Yartsa gunbu market before the mosque  in Lhasa
 
The Lhasa Yartsa gunbu market is dominated by Hui, Chinese muslims [wearing straw hats or white caps], many of them immigrated from Gansu and Ningxia. Their tight-knit community is of great advantage in this trade, since it requires access to big amounts of cash. Many buyers buy on commisson  for the big brokers or borough cash from these brokers for transactions. Most of the yarsta gunbu is sold to Chinese lowland phyto-pharmaceutical companies and the Tibet AR government. The TAR government uses Cordyceps as present for official guests or as Losar / New Years present for government officials. Most of the sellers i observed over the years here are Tibetans. Photo June 2006, Daniel Winkler

Late 2009 a study by Chinese researchers on the genetic diversity of Cordyceps/Ophiocordyceps sinensis on the Tibetan Plateau was published. Very interesting. I have not really studied it in detail, but the conclusion is that polymorphism of nrDNA ITS sequences suggested that O. sinensis spread from a center of origin in Kongpo (Nyingchi / Linzhi Prefecture) to Himalayan influenced southern regions of Tibet AR and subsequently spread to northern areas, where the diversity is much smaller.

title:
Genetic diversity of Ophiocordyceps sinensis, a medicinal fungus endemic to the Tibetan Plateau: Implications for its evolution and
conservation
Authors: Yongjie Zhang, Lingling Xu, Shu Zhang, Xingzhong Liu, Zhiqiang An, Mu Wang and Yinglan Guo

BMC Evolutionary Biology 2009, 9:290 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-9-290

link to the  Genetic diversity study .