Morphological Changes by Submerged Culture Conditions for the Mycelial Optimal Growth of Cordyceps sinensis and Immunological Properties of Hot Water Extract of Mycelium

동충하초 균사체 최적 성장을 위한 심부배양 조건에 따른 형태학적 변화 및 균사체 열수 추출물의 면역학적 특성

The mycelial dispersed growth of Cordyceps sinensis was optimized in submerged batch culture at initial pH of 5.0, 150 rpm, and $25^{\circ}C$. The morphological data showed much more dispersed growth of C. sinenesis at initial pH of 5.0. Also, projected area, main hyphal length and number of tips for the mycelial growth of initial pH 5.0 were higher than those of other initial pHs. The industrial medium for mycelial production of C. sinensis was determined to be molasses of 100 g and crushed brewery yeast of 10 g per liter as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. With these culture conditions, the maximum production of mycelia was approximately 30.0 g per liter by batch culture in 5-liter jar fermenter with no controlled pH. This result suggests that large-scale mycelia production of C. sinensis may be possible in submerged batch culture. The hot water extract of mycelia from C. sinensis was mainly composed of 83.0% carbohydrate, 11.8% protein, 1.9% lipid, and 2.4% ash and there were present glucose, mannose, galactose, and arabinose as molar ratio of 8.79 : 2.59 : 1.34 : 1.0 in the carbohydrate, respectively. In the experiment using spleen cell and macrophage, the extract showed potent mitogenic and immuno-stimulating activities and among various components, an important factor that contribute to the immunological activities was turned out to be carbohydrate moiety.