This study was carried out to elucidate the fungal diversity of Chanhua (Cordyceps cicadae Shing), which is an entomogenous fungal parasite that grows on wingless cicada nymphs.

Samples were collected from 10 different geographical regions including Yibing in Sichuan Province, Jiangsu Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, Guangdong Province, and Guangxi Autonomous Region. The Illumina MiSeq-based method was used to investigate the Chanhua fungal community structures.

The results showed high fungal diversity, with 22 families found in the different samples, Eurotiomycetes was the dominant fungal family associated with Chanhua (composing 36.69% of the sample from Sichuan Mianyang), whereas Cordycipitaceae only composed 0.51% (Sichuan Yibing) to 0.33% (Guangdong) of these samples. Surprisingly, the proportion of Capnodiales was 5.27% in Sichuan Mianyang, whereas the percentage in other regions ranged from 4.35% (Sichuan Yibing) to 2.55% (Zhejiang), and the remaining proportion (more than 80%) was made up of unidentified fungus.

These findings contribute to a better understanding of Chanhua from different regions and revealed an unexpectedly and high amount of unidentified diversity of these fungal communities. These results indicate that Chanhua parasitic fungi need to be further analyzed and identified for finding new medical fungi resources.

To investigate the potential of bidirectional solid fermentation of rhubarb (Rheum palmatum L.) for reducing its toxicity and enhancing its medicinal efficacy.

The fungus Trametes robiniophila Murr. was inoculated into rhubarb. The chemical ingredients as well as antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activities of fermented and unfermented rhubarb extracts were then determined.

After fermentation, levels of anthraquinone glycosides (purgative ingredients) decreased significantly, while the level of anthraquinone aglycone increased. The level of gallic acid was also reduced after fermentation. Ethanol extract of rhubarb (0.8 mg/mL) exhibited DPPH-scavenging activity of 7.6% ± 0.8%, while the blank control (0.8 mg/mL rhubarb) showed 31.3% ± 2.0% activity. Antibacterial activities in fermented samples were found to be enhanced compared with unfermented samples and anticancer activity was evident at concentrations of 2000 and 5000 μg/mL.

Bidirectional solid fermentation appears to be an effective processing method that can be used to improve the efficacy and reduce the toxicity of rhubarb.