Novel liquid fermentation medium of Cordyceps militaris and optimization of hydrothermal reflux extraction of cordycepin

In this study, we developed a novel liquid fermentation medium of Cordyceps militaris using pupa powder and wheat bran as nitrogen resources instead of the traditionally used peptone. This process not only reduced the cost by approximately 50%, but increased production by over 30%. Then, we explored a method to extract and purify cordycepin by combining hydrothermal reflux extraction with macroporous resin adsorption, which is inexpensive and suitable for the industrial production. The optimum conditions for hydrothermal reflux were extracting three times at 95 degrees C with 1:10 sample-to-water ratio, and the cordycepin purity with macroporous resin HPD-100 reached 95.23%.