Effect of Cultural Conditions on Polysaccharide Production and its Physicochemical Properties in Cordyceps militaris

This study was concerned with the optimization of liquid culture conditions for mycelial growth and polysaccharide production and its physicochemical properties in Cordyceps militaris. The one factor at a time method was adopted to investigate the effects of medium composition, environmental factors and C/N ratio. Among the these varialbles, glucose 80g/L, yeast extract 10g/L, $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_{2}O\;0.5g/L$, $KH_{2}PO_4\;0.5g/L$ were proved to be the most suitable carbon, nitrogen, and mineral sources, respectively. The optimal temperature, initial pH, working volume were identified to be $24^{\circ}C$, 7.0 and 100ml, respectively. Under the optimal conditions, the strategies in shake flask culture and 5L jar fermentor led to mycelial growth of 29.43 g/L, 28.88g/L and polysaccharide production of 2.53g/L, 6.38 g/L, respectively. Among the phisicochemical properties, relative concentrations(w/v) of total sugar, uronic acid, protein and hexoseamine were identified to be 74.07%, 1.13%, 0.91%, and 0.46%, respectively. The fraction of neutral and acidic polysaccharide were identified to be 81.9% and 18.1%, respectively.