DETERMINATION OF PROPCESSED CATERPILLAR FUNGUS BASED ON ITS1 MARKERS ON CODYCEPTS SINENSIS AND COI ON GHOST MOTH LARVAE OF HEPIALIDAE FAMILY

Abstract

Products of caterpillar fungus are the complex of Cordyceps sinensis species parasitic to larvae of species of Hepialidae family and developing from winter to summer in high mountains of China, Nepal… Caterpillar fungus has high economic benefits because of its medicinal properties. Therefore, it could be mixed with clavicipitaceous fungi, which are parasitic on larvae of different moth hosts and are produced throughout the year in natural condition or artificial media. In this research, 10 caterpillar fungus samples in capsules were examined based on markers of ITS1 of Codycepts species and COI of Hepialidae and Bombyx mori larvae. Phylogenetic and homology level analyses based on nucleotide polymorphism of the markers revealed that 10 samples contained both caterpillar fungus of C. sinensis and clavicipitaceous fungi of Codycepts militaris and Metacodycepts neoginnii. Similarly, powder of Hepialidae larvae was found in all 10 samples, but five of which were also containing that of B. mori. Therefore, 10 samples were ditermined as no pure caterpillar fungus from C. sinensis and five of them were wrong about Hepialidae hosts. The results in this study suggest the effective uses of molecular markers in identifying possible sources of processed caterpillar fungus products.