Yarshagumba (Cordyceps Sinensis) is a rare herbal medicine to cure deadly diseases like cancer. It is considered to have high medicinal value and used to treat diseases like
diabetes, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular disorder, s$xual dysfunction, renal disease, and many other diseases for centuries in Chinese Traditional Medicine and Bhutanese Indigenous Medicine. Cordyceps Sinesis literally means plants in summer and insects in winter in Tibetan.
Before the rainy season begins, spores of the cordyceps mushroom feed on the heads of caterpillars’ that live underground. The fungus later grows out through the head of the caterpillar and drains all the energy from the insect until it dies.
Cordyceps, a caterpillar fungus is found to be used as high medicinal value by the people around the world.
It is known as Yartsa Gunbu in Tibeto-Bhutanese, words originating from Tibetan language, meaning Yartsa: grass in summer and Gunbu: worm in winter, it is called “Dong chong Xia cao” in China and “Tockukaso” in Japan, words meaning the same. It grows on a high Himalayan plateau, altitude between 3500 to 5000 meters.
Well, known species of genus Cordyceps is Cordyceps Sinensis (CS) which is being widely used for clinical treatments and researches. Cordyceps Sinensis is a dead remain of Himalayan Ghost moth belonging to a species Hepialis aromoricanus, also called as bat moth.
Advanced Biotechnology has revealed that CS has a wide range of bioactive constituents and minerals. There are a number of researches conducted and have seen a good impact of this CS on animals, cell cultures and on some cases of human patients, many kinds of research demonstrated its ability in suppressing the tumor cells of various types of cancer.
However, few hypotheses contradicted that CS suppresses the immunity. Due to lack of proper trials and studies on humans, there is no authenticated or standard protocol that has been formulated for its prescription and clinical use in modern medicine.
Yarshagumba is not cultivated, it grows naturally on government land as well as inside national parks of Nepal. And the most interesting part is, during the Yarshagumba growth time, even the schools and colleges in the region are shut down as the students and teachers move to the higher hills in search of this rare medicinal plant. Imagine how important this herb is!
