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NPR feature on Mushroom Hunting in the PNW

2011-12-01T03:59:54Z

Seattle's NPR station KUOW had in late October a radio feature produced by Ann Dornfeld on PNW mushroom hunting that features PSMS' "Fat of the Land"-Man Langdon Cook and me. I should note that Langdon made the contact and generously allowed me to come along. This was broadcasted during Steve Scher's Weekday's special on "sustainability of foraging" in the Puget Sound region (including urban areas). The first 10 min or so is the report on a mushroom hunt in the Cascade foothills, where we picked chanterelles.

"Fat of the Land"-Man Langdon Cook, Ann Dornfeld and Daniel Winkler

After the hunt Langdon cooked the chanties up in the parking lot, yummy!

Cordyceps militaris & Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides

2011-10-19T18:33:27Z

found in Western Washington State early October 2011

Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides and Cordyceps militaris.
Photo © D. Winkler

Cordyceps militaris

Cordyceps militaris fruiting out of a lepidopteran pupa found by Marian Maxwell. As other true Cordyceps-species it is typified by brightly colored, fleshy stromata. A common name used in the UK is Scarlet Caterpillarclub. Photo © D. Winkler
Drumstick Truffleclub

A Cordyceps militaris stroma close-up showing the "blister"-like perithecia. Inside a perithecium longish asci sacs are embedded in which spores are produced. Photo © D. Winkler

A cross section reveals the structure of the fruiting body. Photo © D. Winkler

Note, how the perithecia are only partially submersed in the stroma of Cordyceps militaris.

Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides

Twin Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides parasitizing on a twin deer truffle (Elaphomyces sp.).
Snaketongue Truffleclub is a good English name used in the UK. Until 2007 it was classified as a true Cordyceps in the Clavicipitaceae family, but now all truffle parasitizing Cordyceps and closely related species that attack nymphs of cicadas are classified as Elaphocordyceps based on an extensive phylogenetic study published by Sung et al. While Cordyceps militaris is the type species in the new Cordycipitaceae family, Elaphocordyceps and Ophiocordyceps species are in the newly erected Ophiocordycepitaceae with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis as type specimen.
This Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides specimen was found by Christian Schwarz
in the Sol Duc forests on the Olympic Peninsula. Photo © D. Winkler

Cross section of the stroma of Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides. Photo © D. Winkler

The perithecia are completely immersed in stroma tissue in an ordinal arrangement, where perithecia are oriented in a right angle to the surface.
In the lower center of the image a larva is visible, a parasite parasitizing a parasite,
or more neutrally formulated "The web of life". Photo © D. Winkler

Sporulating Elaphocordyceps ophioglossoides. This photo was taken one day after the photo above showing the complete Cordyceps-truffle complex. Sporulation had commenced.
Whereas spores in the Cordycipitaceae subdivide into part-spores or propagules, spores in the Ophiocordycipitaceae remain whole and can not subdivide. Photo © D. Winkler

Elaphocordyceps capitata

The most common Cordyceps in the PNW seems to be Elaphocordyceps capitata, the Drumstick Truffleclub. This specimen was found by Thom O'Dell near Sol Duc on the Olympic Peninsula in late October 2008. Photo © D. Winkler

The fertile tissue (brown) of the Elaphocordyceps capitata stroma is very distinct from the non-fertile yellow tissue. Photo © D. Winkler

Two freshly dug Elaphocordyceps capitata specimen found near Breitenbush Hot Springs, OR in 2004. The stroma attaches in these specimens directly onto the Elaphomyces truffle, which it is parasitizing. Photo © D. Winkler

More images of other Cordyceps species on my MushRoaming webpages
Caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) pages
2012 Cordyceps Expedition to Tibet

Seattle Times Article on PSMS Mushroom Show includes Cordyceps militaris image

2011-10-17T17:56:00Z

Here a close up of the stroma (= fruiting body) of the same Cordyceps militaris, which was originally found by Marian Maxwell, and generously left to me.

MushRoaming Bolivia Jan. 2012

2011-10-05T06:35:42Z

Amazing Amazon - MushRoaming Bolivia
Jan. 20 to Feb 2, 2012

After last February's awesome tour in Ecuador, Larry Evans, Montana mycologist known from “Know your Mushrooms” and Daniel Winkler, MushRoaming LLC, will be teaming up again for an eco-tour exploring Bolivia's rich biodiversity and especially its mushrooms. We will meet in La Paz, explore the city and then slowly travel down the Andes to the cloud forest Yungas. Down in the Amazon rain forest we will travel half a day up river by canoe to an eco-lodge where will stay for 6 days surrounded by stunning pristine Amazon Rain Forest to explore the local funga, flora & fauna. Here we will have additional knowledgeable local guides assisting Larry who has researched the Amazonian funga for many years and Daniel. Then we will be returning to the high altitude environment and explore Uyuni, the worlds largest salt fields. More details on: www.MushRoaming.com

Lentinus crinitus is a beautiful mushroom, especially when young and is also an edible.
(Above the text: Phallus indusiatus, the Veiled Stinkhorn)

Gene that makes insect climb after infection isolated

2011-10-05T06:35:20Z

An article in Discover magazine reports that Kelli Hoover and Michael Grove from Pennsylvania State University have just discovered one of the genes that one baculovirus – LdMNPV – uses to control its moth hosts. After infection by the virus the moth will climb to a high place, ideally suited for the virus to spread its spores after the moth is killed in this prime location.

Many Cordyceps species direct their victims into locations that are optimal for host digestion and spore dispersal - i.e. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, and they might use similar strategies as described in this interesting article. Don't forget to check out the links at the bottom of the article.

"New" Cordyceps Article published

2011-07-30T03:19:12Z

The final version of my paper "Caterpillar Fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) Production and Sustainability on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas" has been published in Asian Medicine 5 (2009), p. 291–316.
This paper has been published before in Chinese Journal of Grassland vol. 32 Suppl. p. 96-108. However, the printed version was already outdated before it was published in June 2010 and I had an updated version online that was last update June 11, 2010.

The latest version to be downloaded here, last reviewed in March 2011 was unfortunately published as "2009".

Tong bu ra nyi

Here a twin yartsa gunbu known in Amdo Tibetan as "Tongbu ranyi" (=1000 bu horn two), better translated as "two fruiting bodies occurring once among a thousand yartsa gunbu".

Cordyceps militaris en masse on the market in Chengdu

2011-07-29T12:54:56Z

Today for lunch we had Cordyceps militaris, which was quite tasty and added nice color and texture to the dish with its chanterelle-like yellow. The 5 to 12 cm long fruiting bodies come in long strands and are easy to use. In the past this cultivated medicinal fungus was quite costly. However, it was never as expensive as Ophiocordyceps sinensis, which still no one has figured out how to grow in order that it will produce fruiting bodies.

Well, this bit was written 6 weeks ago, and we took some of the fresh Cordyceps militaris with us to Lhasa where we enjoyed Cordyceps Pizza at the Kyichu hotel. The staff there is already used to me bringing in exotic mushrooms. Last year I found some Sulfur Shelf in Kongpo (Laetiporus sulpherus var. miniatus) and asked the cook to prepare it for our MushRoaming tour group. We also have been enjoying the Shaggy manes (Coprinus comatus) several times in past years that grow in the hotel's beautiful yard.

Dried and fresh Cordyceps militaris for sale on the market in Chengdu. Fresh Cordy only cost 12RMB per pound, dried ones 25 to 60RMB, great deal! Had to take a pound home, dry mushrooms are no problem with customs as long as there are no larvae in there.

Cordyceps militaris on a garlic & onion Pizza with some Lhasa beer, it does not get much better!

Slim Bu Picking in 2011?

2011-06-10T15:26:09Z

Having just visited yartsa gunbu collection areas in SW Qinghai's Gyegu / Yushu / Jyekundo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture early June 2011 it was evident that 2011 will be a year with a harvest below average. Some locals estimated 60 to 70% of last years harvest, which was a banner year. A Gyegu dealer suspected only half the production of 2010.
However, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas have many different climate zones and I was hoping that some other areas would report a better harvest, but that seems not to be the case. I was also told from Garze / Ganzi / Kandze TAP in West Sichuan that this season is not very good and today I saw a newspaper article out of Bhutan that writes about the reduced harvest there. Since these a quite distinct areas located far apart on the Plateau, it seems like the whole harvest in 2011 will be lower than in 2010 and probably also below 2009 and 2008, but there are no reliable data to lift any of this out of sheer speculation. Still, since the 2010 harvest was so high it was to be expected that that the 2011 harvest would be bellow 2010 was to expected.

Yartsa Gunbu being dried over a yak dung heated stove sitting on top of a cooking pot full of boiling water. In the background in the tent a nomad cleaning fresh yartsa gunbu with a plastic hair brush.

The Gyegu / Yushu Yartsa Gunbu market is happening on June 6. It takes place in front of a lone building that survived that devastating April 2010 earthquake. In the back a destroyed building. The blue tents are omnipresent in Gyegu, since over 90% of the houses were lost. Although there is lot of construction activity right now, the extended frost period that stops the use of concrete slows down reconstruction considerably. Basically the hole town functions out of blue tents. In the morning of this day there was another earth small tremor.

Shrinking Yartsa Gunbu Harvest in Yushu Prefecture?

2011-06-04T14:27:37Z

One of Qinghai most famous counties when it comes to caterpillar fungus resources is Zadoi / Dzato in Yushu / Gyegu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The main objective of our field work here is looking into Ophiocordyceps sinensis sustainability issues. Unfortunately Qinghai Province has no program to collect yartsa gunbu production numbers. Thus we decided to ask collectors, dealers and administrators to get a feeling regarding changes in annual production. Most people interviewed report a lower "bu" harvest [besides the fact that 2011 is a lousy season here in Yushu TAP, Southwest Qinghai]. Everyone acknowledges that there are many more collectors on the mountains than there used to be, but still there is also less bu than there used to be. One common example is that areas that used to be very rich in bu have little left and that now they have to search much bigger areas with lower concentration. Maybe this shift is due to over-predation? So it looks like we are facing sustainability issues after all, too bad.

I am working with WWF China on an initiative to cut the collection season short to make sure some bu stays in the ground to fully sporulate and provide spores to infect larvae for the next harvest season. After having gone though a bunch of questions regarding yartsa gunbu harvest, income etc. we show a sequence of images depicting the different stages of maturing caterpillar fungus. Then I have a graph showing the life cycle of the ghost moth. Some collectors are totally fascinated by that info and even said, you should make brochures and get this info out. So far, most people reacted positively to the suggestion of cutting the season short when bu loses much of its value and sporulates heavily. In general everyone wants the resource secured and this approach makes sense to them and does not stop collection altogether. Everyone is totally dependent on that fungal money, outright scarily so.

WWF's Norbu is sharing the maturing stages of caterpillar fungus with a collector lady, who suggested we should turn it into a brochure and get it on TV to inform all collectors.

A yartsa gunbu deal on the grassland. Zadoi midsize bu went for 38RMB a piece, roughly 5US$.

Bu collectors camp in the back country of Zadoi. In front typical habitat that is otherwise mainly yak summer pasture. There were several camps in this valley, this one had 50 tents, so roughly 150 to 250 people. Whole families move up here for the 5 weeks collection season.

Grandpa stays back with the kids too small to search for bu.

Research update from Qinghai

2011-05-30T11:54:11Z

It seems that the 2011 harvest season might be less productive than last year's season, which was very good.

Still the price for caterpillar fungus is quite similar to 2010, just a little bit higher so far. However the price might move up further if the harvest turns out to be disappointing due to worries about a shortage of yartsa gunbu supply.

Several sources indicated that a dry winter is seen as the reason for a lower production. Although it is raining right now in Jyekundo = Yushu, at this point this moisture input would not increase the quantity of fruitings, but might improve the quality.

Anyway, a few more days on the grasslands might give us a better understanding what is actually going on.

Miss An showing some bu that goes for 125,000RMB [20,000USD] per pound

Swiss Caterpillar Secrets or Secretions

Meanwhile NZZ, Neue Zuericher Zeitung, Switzerland's leading news paper, informed their readers this week that in Qinghai Province people are searching the grasslands for precious caterpillar secretions ["Raupen-Sekret"]. NZZ also knew that these secretions are very desired in Tibetan and Chinese medicine.
Rather embarrasing journalistic secretions by a NZZ writer I'd say.

New Cordyceps Articles and Reports from the New Season

2011-05-17T20:12:00Z

In January an article was published in the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms 12(4):427–434 (2010) entitled:
Ethnomycological use of Medicinal Chinese Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis (Berk.) G. H. Sung et al. (Ascomycetes) in Northern Yunnan Province, SW China.

Authors: Jiyue Chen,1 Sangwoo Lee,2 Yongqiang Cao,1 Yanqiong Peng,1 Daniel Winkler,3 Darong Yang1
1 Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China; 2 International Biological Material Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Yusong Daejeon, South Korea; 3 EcoMontane Consulting, Kirkland, WA 98034, USA.

Although I am listed as a co-author and spend quite some time reviewing the paper, I was not part of the original research team. Here is a link to the summary.

In April nearly the same team published in Mycotaxon a paper on a new Cordyceps species: Ophiocordyceps laojunshanensis found in NW Yunnan: It is characterized by slender stromata, sparse perithecia, and the unique habitat of growing in mosses

2011 Mycotaxon vol. 115, pp. 1–4

A new species of Ophiocordyceps (Clavicipitales, Ascomycota) 
from southwestern China

by Ji-Yue Chen, Yong-Qiang Cao, Da-Rong Yang & Ming-Hua Li

Here is a link to the summary

Interview in Tintling

Furthermore I have been interviewed by Tintling, the German Mushroom Magazine. The quite extensive interview with tons of mushroom pictures from Tibet, Bhutan, and North and South America, can now be downloaded as a pdf. It was publisched in Tintling 69, 2/2011, p.56-69

In German: Im Tintling, der deutschsprachigen Pilzzeitung, erschien im April 2011 [Heft 69, S.56-69] ein längeres Interview mit mir, das zudem reich bebildert ist mit zumeist Pilzbildern aus Tibet, Bhutan, und Nord- und Südamerika. Hier der Link zum Herunterladen.

First news reports are trickling in regarding the 2011 collection season, which is underway all over the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.

In Nepal people start heading for the alpine areas to collect yarsagumba - caterpillar fungus. Villages get deserted and schools are closing too, just like in Tibet. Here an article from the Himalayan Times.

From Bhutan Kuensel reports that local elections needed to be moved, otherwise there would have been only few voters, since so many people are up in the mountains collecting Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Also in Bhutan observer was an article on April 27, reporting that the government organized Cordyceps auctions established to maximize villagers fungal income will now be organized by the communities. Details can be read in the Bhutan Observer. Special thanks to Francoise Pommaret who keeps me always posted on the latest developments in Bhutan.

On Mice and Moods

2011-05-16T05:19:00Z

I just recently came across this research published already in 2007 on Cordyceps sinensis tested as an antidepressant on mice. Past experiments using anti-depressants have shown that mice suspend their tails up in the air when they are in a better mood. So tails up apparently can be used to access the potential of a drug as antidepressant. I pasted the summary in and set a link to the complete paper.

Antidepressant-Like Effect of Cordyceps sinensis in the Mouse Tail Suspension Test

Koji NISHIZAWA, Kosuke TORII, Aya KAWASAKI, Masanori KATADA, Minoru ITO,Kenzo TERASHITA, Sadakazu AISO and Masaaki MATSUOKA

Biol. Pharm. Bull. 30(9) 1758—1762 (2007)

link
Summary
Cordyceps sinensis (CS) has been known as a component of traditional medicines that elicit various biological effects such as anti-fatigue, immunomodulatory, and hypoglycemic actions. Since it has been well-established that fatigue is closely related to depression, we used the tail suspension test (TST) in mice to examine the antidepressant-like effects of hot water extract (HWCS) and supercritical fluid extract (SCCS) of CS. Immobility time in the TST was reduced by administration of SCCS (2.5—10 ml/kg, p.o.) dose-dependently though it was not reduced by treatment with HWCS (500—2000 mg/kg, p.o.). Neither HWCS nor SCCS altered locomotor activity in the open field test, excluding the possibility that the effect of SCCS is due to activation of locomotion. Pretreatment with prazosin (an adrenoreceptor antagonist) or sulpiride (a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist) reduced the effect of SCCS on the immobility time. In contrast, pretreatment with p-chlorophenylalanine (p-CPA, a serotonin synthesis inhibitor) did not alter the anti-immobility effect of SCCS. The last finding is consistent with an additional observation that SCCS had no effect on head twitch response induced by 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan in mice. Taken altogether, these results suggest that SCCS may elicit an antidepressant-like effect by affecting the adrenergic and dopaminergic systems, but not by affecting the serotonergic system.

Key words Cordyceps sinensis; depression; tail suspension test; noradrenaline; dopamine

Here a picture from a mouse (or pika) that observed me with big eyes while I was first photographing and then digging out a Cordyceps at Kongpo Barla. Interestingly the fruiting body already had some gnawing traces. I hope the poor mouse managed to keep its tail up after seeing me stealing its yartsa gunbu.

Cordyceps interview with National Geographic Weekend

2011-04-15T22:36:00Z

When I was in Washington DC in late March to present on Cordyceps sustainability at the World Wildlife Fund headquarters "Cordyceps - Tibet's Golden Fungus: Bane or Blessing? I was also interviewed by Boyd Matson from National Geographic Weekend, a radio show.

The subject was, surprise! surprise! Caterpillar fungus. We talked about its role in Tibet, sustainability issues and its perceived and actual "potency". NG weekend was so kind to send me an edited ten minute audio file you can listen to here. I thought it is quite entertaining and informative, but I might be biased......

Daniel during an interview in Shunlung in April 2002

Mushroom Cooking in Tibet Video

I produced my first video for Youtube. It is on Kar Sha cooking. It shows how Meadow mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) are cooked the traditional way with tsampa, butter and salt. The caps are put gills up on the fire in Tibet. It also includes some nice landscape scenes from Kham as well. It is still a little rough, but at only 3 minutes not too torturous ;0}

I have much more video footage from my MushRoaming travels in Tibet [and Ecuador], but I am still very slow in editing, I really need a crash course to get all the great stuff out.

Shimpu du! Yummie!

New Article on Mushrooms in Bhutan

My article on Mushrooms in Bhutan entitled: Bhutan's Buddha Mushroom was finally published in Fungi (No.4.1). It describes then local mushroom markets, especially the Matsutake market and collection, deals with "Yartsa goenbub" - Cordyceps sinensis in Bhutan, and a range of other edibles favored by the Bhutanese.

Caterpillar Fungi from Ecuador's Rain Forest

2011-03-07T05:31:00Z

Got back this week from the MushRoaming Ecuador Tour I organized with Larry Evans. We all had great fun and learned a lot about the funga in the Amazon and many other interesting subjects related to ecology and culture. We are planing on offering another tour in early 2012 to Bolivia

Here a few new Cordyceps / Ophiocordyceps photos from specimen I found in the tropical forests of Ecuador, what an incredible place, what enormous biodiversity!

We found several Ophiocordyceps with bright red perithecia, looking quite similar and being closely related to Ophiocordyceps australis [formerly: Cordyceps australis].

Below an Ophiocordyceps on a weevil with a whole bunch of fruiting bodies growing out of it that is quite similar to Ophiocordyceps curculionium. However DNA analyses by Joey Spatafora, OSU Corvallis have shown that this is most likely a new species closely related to O. curulionium.

Close ups of the perithecia of Ophiocordyceps australis. What a great red these diminutive stromata display. The perithecia look close to maturity.

Below the fungus looks like a proper Ophiocordyceps australis, the most common pathogen in the neotropics. It infected a Conga ant (Paraponera sp.), which is one of the biggest ants in the Amazon. Fungus and ant measure about 12 to 15 cm (5 to 6 in). George Yager spoted the single stroma first, I thought it was a tiny red Mycena and was ready to move on, but Larry Evans recognized the Cordyceps.

This ant was tiny, it measured only 1.2 cm (0.5 in) and you can imagine how small the fruiting body is. I only found it when I was taking multiple pictures of another O. australis and saw a tiny red spot down below.
I am not sure if this is a specimen of Ophiocordyceps australis itself, the red fertile tissue of the fruiting body is less rounded than the typical O. australis.

Note the white growths on the hind leg. They look like conidiomata, which produce spore-like conidia. Conidia are asexual spores, basically reproductive cell clones. Often Cordyceps are only reproducing through conidia. A fungal organism that only produces conidia is known as an anamorph. Anamorphs do not grow stromata or fruiting bodies, only teleomorphs do. Usually lack of fruiting bodies makes identification of a Cordyceps much more difficult.

Near the Umbuni waterfalls I found this creature. At first there were just a few brightly orange stromata visible coming out of a decaying trunk, a favorite site for Cordyceps to direct its prey to dig in before kill off.

Once the fungus cum beetle larva was excavated this wild gestalt became visible:

According to Prof. Spatafora this fungus is a member of Metacordyceps. However, these species seem to acquire hyperparasites quite easily, making the collection of molecular data difficult. A possible name for this morphology is Metacordyceps martialis.

Another Cordyceps, according to Joey Spatafora, OSU mycologist and Cordyceps expert, possibly a Metacordyceps, "Joey wrote: "There are a number of Asian species with this overall morphology (e.g., M. liangshanesis) but I do not know of anything from South America." Here a recent article on the taxonomic status of Metacordyceps, one of the authors being Joey Spatafora.
White fertile stroma tissue is not too common. It is growing on a lepidopteran larva that was also buried in a decaying trunk. Check out the white perithecia.

Close up of the stroma

Cordyceps from Mindo, western slope of the Andes

Below a Cordyceps anamorph that could be Isaria tenuipes, a.k.a. Paecilomyces tenuipes, but there are also other morphologically similar anamorphs. We found it in on trunk near Mindo.

An Ophiocordyceps/ Cordyceps I found in Mindo, sitting on top of an decaying, moss covered trunk. The site was in the cloud forest on the western slope of the Andes in Ecuador. I will try to find out if has been described already.

Close ups of the perithecia of this Ophiocordyceps.

And finally an unidentified Cordyceps relative we found on the wall in our hobbit-style guest house in Mindo. Just wouldn't find a Cordyceps on your wall if it was an upper class hotel, right?

First uploaded 3-6-2011, last update 11-30-2011

New Drug derived from (Ophio-) Cordyceps sinensis

2011-02-04T03:01:00Z

It took me four months to finally add a new entry here yesterday - I spend much more time on my web pages at www.MushRoaming.com - and today this comes through the news ticker:

Himalayan Fungus Aids Mitsubishi Tanabe Sales With Multiple Sclerosis Drug
written by Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo for Bloombergs.

Apparently, Gilenya, as it is marketed by Novartis, a new promising Multiple Sclerosis drug has been developed from Cordyceps sinensis. Twenty five years ago the researcher Tetsuro Fujita had the idea to use Cordyceps since it must suppress the immune system of the ghost moths it feeds on in the Highlands of Tibet and the Himalayas.

We do not know if any real Cordyceps is used as raw material, but the price of a monthly dose of $3000 could suggest that, however pharmaceutical companies probably would charge the same amount if the base was regular straw and the patients in dire need. The analysts are hearing the cash registers ringing out loud . It is speculated that they might make soon 5 billion a year in global annual sales and make it under the top ten drugs, no not most expensive, just highest grossing drugs.

The article mentions the meaning of the Chinese and Japanese name of Cordyceps as "Winter worm, summer plant", in Chinese it is cao = grass, but fails to mention that these names are translations of the original Tibetan name Yartsa gunbu "summer grass, winter worm". It would have been nice if Tibetan medicine gets the credit it deserves, since it was first used in Tibet. And also its first record dates to the late 15th century doctor Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje. And what about not only a credit to the roots of this medicinal, but to Tibetan Medicine for having discovered the medicinal value of this weird organism? And once in the dream state, what about a slice of Mitsubishi Tanabe & Novartis pharma profit pie for the further development of Tibetan medicine?

Image of Cordyceps subsessilis from D. Shimizu and K. Kobayashi 1997. Illustrated Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms in Colour, Tokyo.

Interestingly, no mentioning in the article of Ciclosporin, another famous drug that has been developed from Cordyceps, but another species Cordyceps subsessilis. Ciclosporin, is used to suppress immune reaction after organ transplants, a procedure not possible without immuno-suppression. It was originally derived from Tolypocladium inflatum and only later recognized as the true anamorph [meaning an asexually often mold like state] of C. subsessilis by Cornell mycologist Kathy Hodge and others.

Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje in a contemporary Yartsa Gunbu Thangka:

The Men-tsee-khang webpage reports about Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje

Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorjee was born to Rigzin Phuntsok and the daughter of Kunkyen Tashi Namgyal in the Earth Sheep year. He learned Buddhist philosophy and medicine from many renowned scholars and, at the age of 16, he wrote Manngag-Jewa-Ringsel (Pith Instructions, Relics in Crores, [better translated as "Instructions on a Myriad of Medicines"]) and many other treatises. He was the founder of the Zurlug tradition of Tibetan medicine. Later, his grandson Zurkhar Lodoe Gyalpo wrote a commentary on rGyud-bzhi called Mepoi Zallung (Oral Instructions of my Forefathers).

Cordyceps Mishaps in the Mean Stream News

2011-02-03T06:37:00Z

Caterpillar fungus made it in the main stream news in January. From the BBC to New York Post . The articles focused on a sad story of a mass murder in Nepal's Annapurna region. In a nutshell the sad story went like this: A group of 7 non-local poachers were found sneaking into the village's Cordyceps habitat and was confronted by 65 local men. One of the poaching Gorkhas got killed, so some came up with the idea to kill them all and pretend nothing ever happened. Well, that did not work. Now 35 of them are accused of murder. The story was originally brought to light to western readersby Jamie James article "Nepal's Aphrodisiac War " published in Men's Journal in May 2010, it previously was reported in South Asian media.

Not surprising, but still disappointing, the media attention focused on the dark side of the Yartsa gunbu story, or Yarsagumba as it is known in Nepali. The BBC piece by Joanna Jolly was entitled: "Yarsagumba - Curse of Himalayan Annapurna Region". Sadly, each year some people get killed when emotions run high in the context of harvesting this extremely precious fungus. We are talking of an annual harvest worth in the hundreds of millions, and these are not Rupees or Yuan, but Dollars or Euros. Real big money in this otherwise impoverished region of Tibet and the Himalayas. Taking these astronomical values into account in an industry that takes place in extremely remote areas with very little oversight, it is surprising how few fatal incidents happen each year. In regard of value generated and transferred, the Yartsa gunbu fever is probably best compared to an annually reoccurring gold rush. And gold rushes are an economic phenomenon usually accompanied by many, many more fatalities.

In general, I am very impressed how non-combative the whole collection is and how peaceful the collection season passes each year. And, yes, each fatality is very sad and unnecessary. Already some stories have been published, for example from Dzato County in South Qinghai where some local officials got killed in 2005 over selling harvesting permits to outsiders without consulting the locals or sharing profits with locals. I also mention a few other cases in my 2008 Economic Botany article on the Yartsa gunbu economy in Tibet.

Another sad event I heard about took place in Nagchu in 2009. A local herder and a collector got in a fight. The herder insisted it was not acceptable to pick Yartsa gunbu around the shores of a sacred lake. The devout person saw the purity of the site being spoiled. A fight ensued and one of them got killed, thus in the end human blood spoiled the water of the sacred lake.

This raises the question why do many Tibetan people, be they under Chinese or Nepali rule, regard the collection of Yartsa gunbu as a source of bad karma? This perspective stems from a traditional Tibetan taboo, described in Namkhai Norbu's book "journey among Tibetan nomads" (2002) that digging up the ground for roots or mineral upsets the local spirits, which then will strike the transgressor, his or her clan and their livestock with disease and other misfortune. Furthermore, Yartsa gunbu is perceived as a living creature, the larva is still alive from a traditional perspective, thus harvesting caterpillar fungus is an act of killing. However from a scientific view the killing of the insect was already done by the fungus, the collectors are now taking the life of the insect killing fungus, an act that usually receives much less attention, since mushrooms are perceived as a less conscious life-form than animals.

Back to recent articles on Yartsa gunbu; Much relevant information on Caterpillar fungus is contained in an English language article by French Observer 24 entitled: "Tibet's Herbal Viagra , worth its weight in gold".

Here an image of maybe Tibet's first Yartsa Gunbu Thangka, I hope I did not upset any traditionalists commissioning this scroll painting including the Medicine Buddha - Sanggye Menla སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་བླ། and Zurkhar Nyamnyi Dorje, a famous Tibetan Physician, who wrote about Yartsa Gunbu in the 15th Century, the first known record of Ophiocordyceps sinensis.

Cordyceps and everything else in the Jungles of Ecuador

2010-10-09T17:18:00Z

We are teaming up with FungalJungal's Larry Evans, an expert on Bolivia's rain forest fungi and Ecuador's Jungle Chocolate Lodge for the next MushRoaming Tour.

February 12 to 25, 2011

MushRoaming Ecuador's Rainforest

We will be based in a beautiful and clean Canadian-run jungle lodge connected to an organic chocolate plantation located in Ecuador's Amazon Rain Forest. Arrival and departure from Quito, Ecuador's Andean capital.
Early bird special when booking before Nov. 1, 2010
Link to Ecuador MushRoaming 2011 tour

Cordyceps digesting a Scarabaeus beetle. Photo: Larry Evans

Bryce Kendrick encountered this spider in Ecuador killed by a fungus, probably Cordyceps ignota Marchion. According to Bryce, the spider is Tarantula (Theraphosidae) within the infraorder Mygalomorphae.
What a sight!!!

An ecclectic member of the Stinkhorn family, Staheliomyces cinctus. Photo: Larry Evans

Canoes are the way to go. Most travels and excursions will be done by canoe on the Amazonian river system.
Photo: Larry Evans

The Color Purple, fungal feature. Photo: Larry Evans

Bioluminescent fungi have turned into a recent sensation in the rain forest.
Fungi use insects attracted by the emitted light for spore dispersion. Photo: Larry Evans

Link to Pictures of the 2011 Ecuador tour

Link to Fungi article on the Ecuador Mushroaming Tour

Link to Bolivia MushRoaming 2012 tour

New Photo Reports on MushRoaming in Tibet

2010-10-02T23:28:00Z

I uploaded dozens of images on my web pages from this summer's Floral & Fungal Foray to Tibet's beautiful Kongpo Region. The tour was a great success and we will do a similar itinerary July 31 to Aug 13, 2011 .

But back to Cordyceps. As expected we encountered hundreds of pounds of caterpillar fungus being traded on the markets in Lhasa and Bayi. Markets are much busier once all the caterpillar fungus is harvested.

A Tibetan offering a shoebox full of Yartsa gunbu at the Bayi Market .

A Hui dealer with around 10 pounds worth US$40,000 to 60,000.

I was quite surprised to find fresh caterpillar fungus in late July onthe markets in Kongpo, here a fresh harvest dug in the mountains above Draksum Tso. In most place the collection season is over in mid to end of June.

Freshly collected Bu karpo I encountered in a village near Draksum Tso. Here the white Yartsa Gunbu being dried on a threshold.
Bu Karpo deserves its own entry at some point. I have encountered it several times in Kongpo where it seems endemic.

I really loved our homestay with a Tibetan family who took us matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake) hunting in their evergreen oak woods on the foot of the majestic 7500m high Gyala Pelri. When back home we cooked up several mushroom species and shared our cooking. I still got to finish the report, but already uploaded 50 pics or so.

Also we found so many orchids that I had to make an orchid page which so far has 23 species including stunning lady slipper orchids Cypripedium (C. tibeticum, C.himalaicum, C.flavum and C. guttatum) and gorgeous Habenarias.

Cypripedium himalaicum on Serkim La Habenaria arietina flowering in Pome / Bomi

Many more pictures are to viewed on my web pages from this summer's Floral & Fungal Foray to Tibet.

Ophiocordyceps Conference and Recent Publications

2010-06-11T00:11:00Z

The June 9/10, 2010 International conference on Ophiocordyceps 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:

"Caterpillar Fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) Production and Sustainability on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas"

(last version 6-11-2010).

Pretty much the same article with a few corrections and added info pertaining to Bhutan has been published in May 2011 as 2009 (go figure) in Asian Medicine 5 (2009), p. 291–316

A scientific article analyzing Tibet's fungal industries, containing an overview of the most important commercial species and then main focus on Caterpillar fungus and Matsutake: can be downloaded on the left as Cordyceps & Matsutake 2008

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.
Download

Winkler, D. 2008. The Mushrooming Fungi Market in Tibet Exemplified by Cordyceps sinensis and Tricholoma matsutake. Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies. 4: 1-46.
Download

A paper originally co-written with Karl Ryavec in 2000, published in 2009 as 2006 [sic!] dealing with Eastern Tibet's forests, forestry, the state logging industry and issues of sustainability or the lack thereof. While I wrote about all these issues Karl used remote sensing tools analyzing Landsat satellite images of clear-cuts in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan and provided mapping on the forest areas of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau:

Ryavec, K. & Winkler D. 2006. Logging Impacts to Forests in Tibetan Areas of Southwest China. A Case Study from Ganze Prefecture Based on 1998 Landsat TM Imagery. In: Himalaya - Journal of the Association for Nepal & Himalayan Studies 2006, vol. 26.1: 38-45,
Download

A more popular written paper on the morel industry in East Tibet with some nice pictures.
Winkler D. 2010. Morels in Eastern Tibet. Fungi 3.2: p.6-7.
Download

In general most of my articles can be found at my main web pages under Publications

I found my biggest caterpillar fungus ever in Xining!

Yartsa Gunbu Hunting in East Tibet - May / June 2010

2010-06-01T14:01:00Z

Pictures from my 2010 MushRoaming Cordyceps Tour in Eastern Tibet (West Sichuan & Qinghai) showing the Yartsa gunbu collection in 2010.

More detailed report on my MushRoaming webpages

Not much is happening once it snowed. Collectors just hang out and have to kill time waiting until the snow melts. The day before the snow was already a day of rest since it was the 15th day in the Tibetan calendar, many collectors take off this holiday from collecting.

Dorje, Thubten, Tashi Tsering and Drolma scanning the ground for bu. These guys are off course fully licensed collectors at CNY600 per person, nearly USD100. Without license one is not allowed to collect Yartsa gunbu. As tourists we probably could not even buy a license and we are not there as competition interested in searching the mountains 12 hours a day for 5 weeks. So we just ask local bu hunters if we could accompany them and usually we are received warmly. If we find some bu ourselves we buy it from them, but here they found ten Yartsa gunbu while we found only one.

We found our specimen in 4650m / 14,500 ft ! 2010 seems to be an excellent year for Ophiocordyceps sinensis on the Tibetan Plateau.

Close by grew this beautiful Iris, probably Iris ruthenica var. nana.

Vultures feeding on a yak carcass. We were awed watching them walking and hopping up the slope. Their bellies were apparently too full to allow them a take off in the valley ground without gathering momentum by running downhill.

Prices are higher in 2010 than in 2009. Maybe that is the reason that these Yartsa gunbu dealers are smiling in Litang.

"Chongcao" being processed in a high end store in Chengdu. Prices here ranged from CNY 20,000 per kg for stromata only (none of the highly desired insect parts) up to CNY 360,000 per kg for the fattest, finest caterpillar fungi.

Rongpatsa, Kandze / Ganzi County June 2, 2010

"Kar Sha" - Agaricus campestris

Kar Sha or Karpo Shamo, the "White mushroom" in Tibetan denotes several Agaricus species. It is a favorite edible in Tibet, nearly everyone knows, since it grows in pastures and around camps and villages.
Here Agaricuscampestris is growing in the grass.

Loga showing some Kar Sha in front of Rongpatsa's ShedaMountains. I heard many stories about it and this time I had the chance to watch the preparation [see below].

Kar Sha mushrooms, gills up without stems, are being roasted on an electric coil stove. Butter, salt and tsampa [roasted ground barley flour] is placed on top of the gills and cooks in the juice of the field Agaric.

Dechen offers some of the cooked Agaricus campestris caps. They were very tasty!

Our driver Mr. Song took off on his own hike while we looked for Yartsa gunbu. He found a big patch of Lepista saeva = personata, the field blewit or blue foot. Some local Tibetans knew about its edibility, but it is by far not as known or common as Kar Sha, Agaricus campestris.

Caterpillar Fungus Hunt

Yartsa Gunbu, caterpillar fungus habitat we searched with success after hiking in for several hours. Mount Dinu, probably 16000ft in the background.

Tenzin found a nice Yartsa gunbu. The season here is nearly over, all Ophiocordyceps sinensis are sporulating [see below]

Yartsa gunbu hunters showing each other their bounty.

A late stage caterpillar fungus. Tibetans called it "tsar bu", overmature yartsa gunbu. While the fungus is sporulating the underground larva becomes soft and will shrink heavily whendrying and result in low value.

Perfect ending for a perfect MushRoaming day. Our guide Dorje relaxes in Rongpatsa's famous hot springs! What a view!

There are still spaces avaialble for the July 14- 27 Tour to Tibet.
Check out:
www.danielwinkler.com/foray_announce.htm
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