The World’s Priciest Fungus

The World's Priciest Fungus

Posted: July 7, 2016

Believe it or not, one of the world’s most coveted status symbols is a caterpillar with a fungus growing out of its face.

I’m Anna, and this is Gross Science.

On the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas, ghost moth caterpillars live underground, keeping warm and eating plant roots til they turn into adult ghost moths.

That is, unless they get infected with the fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis . The fungus enters a caterpillar’s body in summer or autumn, and it starts to grow in threads through the caterpillar’s organs, eating it from the inside out. Brainwashed by the fungus, the caterpillar crawls upward until it’s just below the surface of the soil, where it dies.

In the spring, a long, brown fungal stalk bursts from the caterpillar’s head. It pops through the soil to send out its spores, which infect other caterpillars—and the circle of life and parasitism continue.

Now, you might think that’s the end of the story, but people scour the meadows where the fungus grows, hoping to harvest these infected corpses. Why? Well, a pound of the fungus, called yartsa gunbu, can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, it’s probably the most valuable fungus in the world. That’s because it’s used in traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine to slow aging, cure cancer, and treat all kinds of other diseases. It’s even sold as an aphrodisiac.

The science is still out on whether eating yartsa gunbu actually does anything good for your health. But, harvesting it is definitely bad for the fungus. It’s a huge status symbol in China, and people have collected so much Ophiocordyceps sinensis that it’s now endangered in some places.

And, this isn’t just a problem for the parasite, or for the people who eat it or brew it in tea. Yartsa gunbu is a big part of the economy in places where it’s harvested, like Tibet and Nepal. So, local communities are trying to figure out ways to sustainably harvest the fungus. Because for them, this is one parasite that’s worth protecting.

I still feel kind of bad for the caterpillar though.

Ew.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Host, Animator, Editor

Anna Rothschild

Writer

Elizabeth Preston

Camera, Sound

Seeta Joseph

Quirky Idea

Music Provided by APM

© WGBH Educational Foundation 2016

FOOTAGE AND IMAGES

Caterpillar Fungus 2

Filmographer:
Rdo rje don 'grub རྡོ་རྗེ་དོན་འགྲུབ།
(Duojieduanzhi)
Flickr/Koknor Koknor

Cordyceps sinensis in ground

Exposed 2008 and Bu Finding BarLa288
© Daniel Winkler
http://mushroaming.com

Weighing Caterpillar Fungus

Wikimedia Commons/Mario Biondi

Soup of Silkie Seahorse and Cordyceps

Wikimedia Commons/Kent Wang

Mountain yak penis, fungus as Chinese medicines

Wikimedia Commons/Angela Schmeidel Randall

Cordyceps Sinensis

Wikimedia Commons/Rafti Institute

Caterpillar Fungus Store, Central Lhasa

Flickr/Erik Törner

Duck Tales, Alice in Wonderland, Mario Gifs

Giphy

SFX

Cockroaches

Freesound/StateAardvark­
(used with permission from author)

Squeak Pack/squeak_10

Freesound/Corsica_S

Jawharp Boing

Freesound/plingactivator

Swish Unwrap Fast

Freesound/goldendiaphragm

RAM_Mouth Hawk_rev_v1

Freesound/Reidedo

Male drinking slurping aaaaaaaaaaah small belch

Freesound/Anton

Tape Pulling Off Surface

Freesound/Baryy

MouthPop

Freesound/HerbertBoland

Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios

Want more info?

NPR—Caterpillar Fungus: The Viagra of the Himalayas:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/09/141164173/caterpillar-fungus-the-viagra-of-the-himalayas/

National Geographic—Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/121128-caterpillar-fungus-swelling-animals-science/

Cochrane—Cordyceps sinensis (a Chinese medicinal herb) for treating chronic kidney disease:
http://www.cochrane.org/CD008353/RENAL_cordyceps-sinensis-a-chinese-medicinal-herb-for-treating-chronic-kidney-disease/

Science Alert—The parasitic fungus is worth more than its weight in gold:
http://www.sciencealert.com/this-parasitic-fungus-is-worth-more-than-its-weight-in-gold/

Nature—Asian medicine: A Fungus in decline:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7383/full/482035b.html

7th International Medicinal Mushroom Conference—Steps towards Sustainable Harvest of Yartsa Gunbu (Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis)