Effects of Various Treatments on Extraction of the Main Bioactive Components and Determination of Biological Activity of Extracts from the Caterpillar Medicinal Mushroom Cordyceps militaris (Ascomycetes).

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In this study we optimized the extraction of cordycepin from Cordyceps militaris through the use of an orthogonal test based on single-factor experiments. The results showed that the largest amount of cordycepin (1260.28 ± 46.38 μ.g/g) was achieved with an extraction time of 15 minutes, an extraction temperature of 100°C, and a liquid-to-material ratio of 50 mL/g. The antioxidant activities and xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of aqueous extracts, ethanol extracts, and polysaccharides from C. militaris were subsequently determined. The results showed that the various extracts and polysaccharides all had certain antioxidant activities. However, the polysaccharides had a strong ability to scavenge superoxide radicals and at 0.5-3.0 mg/mL had almost the same effect as vitamin C. In addition, the polysaccharides displayed concentration-dependent xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity, but the ethanol extract exhibited a negative relation at concentrations of 0.5-3.0 mg/mL, whereas the aqueous extracts had very low (< 10%) xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity. Our results indicate that C. militaris has potential use as part of well-balanced diets and in the pharmaceutical industry.