Cordyceps sinensis is an industrial edible fungus, which is a complex composed of Cordyceps sinensis and Lepidoptera larvae. It is a traditional precious tonic medicine in China. Due to the shortage of supply, the roots of silkworm excrement, bamboo shoots and other plants appear as counterfeit products in the market, and some even use bean flour and starch to process them into counterfeit products.

Consumers can identify from the following two aspects when purchasing:

(1) Look at bugs: The so-called "caterpillar" refers to bugs. It is that when the larvae parasitize on Cordyceps sinensis and overwinter in the soil with the larvae, the bacteria multiply in the larvae, resulting in the death of the larvae, leaving only a worm-like sclerotia. The insect looks like a three-sleeping old silkworm, with a body length of 3-5 cm. After drying, its appearance is yellow or yellowish brown, with obvious horizontal lines and fine ring lines near the head. There are four pairs of obvious abdominal feet in the abdomen, which are fragile and easy to break, with a flat section and yellow-white color.

(2) Look at the base: The so-called "summer grass" refers to the base, which is the exposed soil surface that grows from the head of the larva in summer and looks like grass seedlings. The style is 4- 1 1 cm long, stalked, often an only child, with 2-3 branches occasionally, dark brown or brown, thick at the base, tapering upward, slightly enlarged at the upper part, and cylindrical. The top is dark, purple-black, rough skin, and most of them have tiny granular protrusions. The sub-matrix is flexible, and its cross section is fibrous, yellow and slightly fishy and tasteless.

Cordyceps sinensis is a traditional precious medicinal material in China, which was first seen in Compendium of Materia Medica and named Cordyceps sinensis. Cordyceps sinensis recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia refers to the complex of Cordyceps sinensis belonging to the family Ergonomidae parasitic on moth larvae, which grows in alpine meadow soil at an altitude of 3,500-5,000 meters and is produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet and other places in China.

I. Identification

Cordyceps sinensis consists of two parts: insect body and fungal stroma (grass). The worm is like a silkworm, with a dark yellow to yellowish brown surface, 20-30 ring lines all over the body, a reddish brown head, 8 pairs of feet on the ventral surface, 3 pairs near the head, 4 pairs in the middle, and 1 fragile near the tail. The base is slender and cylindrical, curved, with a dark brown to brown surface and flexible mass. The smell is slightly fishy.

Second, confuse products.

1, Cordyceps Ziziphus Spinosae: distributed in Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces. It consists of a worm body and an auxiliary seat. The insect body is a silkworm body, with a white outer surface and an excellent head, which is brown and black, fragile and easily broken. The substrate is solitary or branched from the insect head, with grayish brown surface, easy to break and slightly fragrant air.

2. Cordyceps sinensis: distributed in Henan Province. This worm is cylindrical or flat kidney-shaped, with a brown surface, a small brown head and a pair of claws. There are 3 pairs of feet in the chest or have fallen off, and there are brown hairs on the feet. Crispy. The substrate grows from the bottom of the larva's head, dark brown and slightly smelly.

3. Cordyceps Liangshan: distributed in Sichuan Province. The worm is large, curved like a silkworm, brown in surface, inconspicuous in foot and easy to break. The submount is slender and cylindrical, with no branches or branches on the upper part, irregular bending or twisting, and the surface is yellow-brown or yellow-brown. The head of the submount is cylindrical or rod-shaped, with a slightly fishy smell.

4. Ground silkworm: it is the underground tuber of ground silkworm in Labiatae. The composition is single, spindle-shaped, slightly pointed at both ends, light yellow or brownish yellow, slightly wrinkled and twisted on the surface, with a few bud marks and fibrous root marks, which are brittle and easily broken. This food is sweet and sticky.

5. Molded Cordyceps sinensis: It is made of starch or soybean powder by molding and dyeing. The surface of the worm is yellowish brown, smooth, with neat ring lines on the back and pressed ridge marks on both sides of the abdomen. The base is long cylindrical, curved, black or gray-black, hard and heavy. Immersed in water, the surface color will elute. Because it is pressed with a mold, the shape and color are basically the same.