Cordyceps is a very valuable herb in TCM and is much sought after. It came into prominence when several Chinese female athletes, to the surprise of every one broke several long distance world records and attributing their successes to taking tonics made from Cordyceps. In reality the Cordyceps Preparations available in the market all come from pseudo cordyceps, as it is cultured and cultivated, not wild grown. That this is so is due to the high price of the original Cordyceps due to the reason below. The original Cordyceps is wild grown and
are found in the mountainous regions in Tibet, China and Nepal. Because of indiscriminate harvesting; without any concern for the environment gatherers or harvesters thus caused havoc to the environment and threatened the very existence of the original Cordyceps. As a form of protection the Chinese Government had since placed a ban on such activities and regulates its extraction with licensing. That is why the original Cordyceps is extremely expensive due to scarcity.
