Antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer activities of cordyceps militaris cultivated in Vietnam.

Abstract

Cordycep militaris is a medicinal and edible mushroom which broadly used as folk tonic food. The aim of this study is to test antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity and anticancer activity of crude ethanol extract from the examined Cordyceps militaris fruiting bodies cultivated in Vietnam. Well diffusion method was carried out to evaluate antimicrobial activity of the extract against Gram-positive bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus; Gram-negative bacteria: Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. All bacteria were susceptible to the extract at different concentrations (50 mg/ml, 100 mg/ml, 200 mg/ml), whereas the tested concentrations shown no growth inhibition on fungi Candida albicans. In terms of antioxidant activity, the ethanol extract shown weaker scavenging activity on DPPH (2, 2 diphenyl 1-1-picrylhydrazyl) free radial with SC50 = 1819.87 μg/ml when compared to standard compound-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) SC50 = 4.67 μg/ml. Regarding to anticancer activity, the Cordyceps militaris extract exhibited growth inhibition against various human cancer cell lines including hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep-G2, IC50 =38.27 ± 5.86μg/ml); breast cancer MCF-7 (IC50 = 41.42 ± 7.56μg/ml); cervical carcinoma Hela (IC50 =139.57 ± 11.87μg/ml) and non-small cell lung cancer (NCI-H460, IC50 =190.97 ± 5.73 μg/ml). However, the extract also shown cytotoxicity on normal cell line (fibroblast) with IC50 = 70.37 ± 14.32 μg/ml which suggested potential use for cancer treatment from the extract on hepatocellular carcinoma and breast cancer. KEYWORDS Cordyceps militaris; antimicrobial activity; well diffusion method; antioxidant potential; DPPH scavenging assay; anticancer activity.