Cordyceps militaris

About Cordyceps militaris

A bright orange fungus cultivated on grain or insect substrate, and the species in most products labelled simply "cordyceps". It is the main commercial source of cordycepin, a nucleoside analogue.

Almost everything sold as cordyceps is this species or a fermented mycelial strain, not the wild caterpillar fungus of Tibetan medicine, and the substitution is rarely disclosed. The exercise literature is the most-cited part: small trials of mushroom blends containing C. militaris report improvements in ventilatory threshold and time to exhaustion in untrained or recreationally active participants, with effects that shrink or vanish in trained ones. The blends usually contain several mushrooms, so attribution to cordyceps specifically is not possible. Cordycepin itself is pharmacologically interesting — it is an adenosine analogue that inhibits polyadenylation — but it is rapidly degraded by adenosine deaminase after ingestion, which is why intravenous formulations were needed in oncology research.

Sold as

Hot-water extract capsule, Fermented mycelium powder, Mushroom blend powder, Fruiting body extract

Standardised to

Sometimes percentage cordycepin or adenosine; grain-grown mycelium products often report neither — a product without this marker may not resemble what was studied.

Also known as

Orange caterpillar fungus, Cultivated cordyceps, Cordycepin source

Regulation: Sold as a dietary supplement in the US with no pre-market efficacy review. Cordyceps is not prohibited in sport, though sports supplements generally carry a documented contamination risk.

What the research used

The amounts, forms and durations published trials of Cordyceps militaris actually administered.

When it was taken

Each window says whether a trial compared it against an alternative, or whether it is convention and pharmacology. Most timing advice is the second kind.

In the food catalogue

The whole-food form, where one exists. The evidence for a concentrated extract rarely transfers to the food, or the other way round — these are cross-links, not equivalents.