<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Shedding light on cordyceps chicken
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr Richard Seah, 'Chickens tuned to Mozart: Questions on feed'.
'The real thing', commonly known as the cordyceps caterpillar, is a form of parasitic fungus, Cordyceps sinensis. It is grown in a kind of worm, where the fungus cordyceps eats the flesh which gives it nutrients and enables it to grow. Thus the nutritional and health value of cordyceps come from the fungus rather than the worm.
With 10 years of research, AP Nutripharm has developed a proprietary cordyceps fungus CS-X100, originally isolated from the Qinghai-Tibet cordyceps caterpillar, together with a patented cultivation process to grow cordyceps in Singapore. AP cordyceps has been offered for human consumption since 2005, and the quality is as good as top-grade Qinghai-Tibet cordyceps caterpillar, according to laboratory testing data. As home-grown cordyceps is much cheaper than the imported variety, chickens can be fed sufficiently to derive benefits.
Except for the European Union, antibiotics or antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) have been added to animal feed since 1946 to help food animals grow faster in most agricultural nations in the world, despite severe restrictions by the authorities.
AP has made a great effort for years on the study of its cordyceps ingredient to replace AGP in food animal feed. From farming trials in different countries, AP cordyceps can function as well or even better than AGP for growth, feed efficiency, health conditions and mortality in poultry farming. Laboratory reports also indicate that cordyceps chicken meat is free of antibiotic residues.
AP cordyceps can also improve the quality of meat and eggs. From laboratory testing results, fat and cholesterol are much lower while collagen and the flavouring IMP are dramatically higher in cordyceps chicken meat and eggs than in normal ones. So far, one key nutrient in cordyceps - cordycepin - is proven by testing to be passed onto the chicken.
Limited by scientific methodology, we have yet to determine exactly how much of the beneficial compounds are transferred. Generally speaking, large components such as protein and polysaccharides would be decomposed in the digestive tract, while small beneficial components like cordycepin are likely to be carried by the chicken and egg.
Dr Mark Xu
AP Nutripharm
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to last Friday's letter by Mr Richard Seah, 'Chickens tuned to Mozart: Questions on feed'.
'The real thing', commonly known as the cordyceps caterpillar, is a form of parasitic fungus, Cordyceps sinensis. It is grown in a kind of worm, where the fungus cordyceps eats the flesh which gives it nutrients and enables it to grow. Thus the nutritional and health value of cordyceps come from the fungus rather than the worm.
With 10 years of research, AP Nutripharm has developed a proprietary cordyceps fungus CS-X100, originally isolated from the Qinghai-Tibet cordyceps caterpillar, together with a patented cultivation process to grow cordyceps in Singapore. AP cordyceps has been offered for human consumption since 2005, and the quality is as good as top-grade Qinghai-Tibet cordyceps caterpillar, according to laboratory testing data. As home-grown cordyceps is much cheaper than the imported variety, chickens can be fed sufficiently to derive benefits.
Except for the European Union, antibiotics or antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) have been added to animal feed since 1946 to help food animals grow faster in most agricultural nations in the world, despite severe restrictions by the authorities.
AP has made a great effort for years on the study of its cordyceps ingredient to replace AGP in food animal feed. From farming trials in different countries, AP cordyceps can function as well or even better than AGP for growth, feed efficiency, health conditions and mortality in poultry farming. Laboratory reports also indicate that cordyceps chicken meat is free of antibiotic residues.
AP cordyceps can also improve the quality of meat and eggs. From laboratory testing results, fat and cholesterol are much lower while collagen and the flavouring IMP are dramatically higher in cordyceps chicken meat and eggs than in normal ones. So far, one key nutrient in cordyceps - cordycepin - is proven by testing to be passed onto the chicken.
Limited by scientific methodology, we have yet to determine exactly how much of the beneficial compounds are transferred. Generally speaking, large components such as protein and polysaccharides would be decomposed in the digestive tract, while small beneficial components like cordycepin are likely to be carried by the chicken and egg.
Dr Mark Xu
AP Nutripharm
