Effect of agar plate method for cultivatingon the formation of Cordyceps militaris fruiting body

Abstract

Cordyceps militaris is a type of medicinal mushroom with many precious biological effects. However, unstable formation of fruiting bodies is considered a barrier for industrial production. In this study, the mushroom cultivating conditions on agar have been investigated in order to find out the best level 1 propagation medium. The results showed that, the PDA culture medium with supplement of 10 g/l peptone provided the best growth: growth rate achieved 4.8 mm/day, and colony diameter got 9.74 cm after 20 days of cultivation. The trials on solid medium exhibited that the time of mechanical covering substrates was 9.12 days, the duration of appearance of fruiting body germs was 15.37 days, the number reached 36.51 fruiting bodies/bottle, the average length of fruiting bodies was 68.24 mm, and the biological efficiency was 12.43%.