Cordyceps Rice Wine: A Novel Brewing Process

Cordycepin exhibits a broad spectrum of biological activities. In this study, the solid culture conditions of C ordyceps militaris for accumulating cordycepin were optimized, then the medium was added into the brewing process of rice wine; the brewing conditions of cordyceps rice wine were optimized. In addition, the dynamic changes of the main components in cordyceps rice wine during main fermentation process were analyzed. The optimal solid culture condition for C . militaris was liquid‐to‐solid ratio of 1.23 m L /g with inoculum size of 15%, fermenting at 23 C . The optimal fermentation conditions of cordyceps rice wine was cordyceps medium addition of 50 g/100 g dry rice, liquid‐to‐solid ratio of 1.96 mL/g, koji addition of 6.53%, fermenting at 25.09 C . Under these conditions, the content of cordycepin was 40.58 mg/ L after 2 days of main fermentation. During 3 days of main fermentation, the cordycepin content decreased to 33.69 mg/ L at the end of fermentation. Practical Applications Cordycepin is a kind of nucleoside analogue firstly extracted from C ordyceps militaris that contains antitumor functions and antioxidants that protects the liver, kidney, heart, etc. Rice wine is a traditional alcoholic beverage and belongs to the brewing that is wine consumed largely. If the cordyceps medium is added into the rice wine brewing process, it will make full use of the starch in the medium and improve the functional properties of rice wine. In this study, we optimized the culture condition of C . militaris for accumulating cordycepin, then the medium was added into the brewing process of rice wine; the brewing conditions of cordyceps rice wine were optimized and the variation of cordycepin content during main fermentation was investigated as well.