Determination of cordycepin content of Cordyceps militaris recombinant rice by high performance liquid chromatography

Purpose: To assess the suitability of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the determination of cordycepin content of Cordyceps militaris recombinant rice Methods: Cordyceps militaris recombinant rice was made by mixing brown rice with artificial Chinese caterpillar fungus culture medium powder using twin-screw extrusion technology. Cordycepin content was determined by reversed-phase HPLC with water:acetonitrile (95:5, v/v) as mobile phase, detection wavelength of 260 nm, and flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Results: Cordycepin contents showed good linearity in the range of 1 - 50.0 μg/mL (r 2 = 0.9996), and while recovery ranged from 103.2 to 109.9 %. Relative standard deviation (RSD), precision and repeatability RSD was 2.38, 0.76 and 1.46 %, respectively. Conclusion: The HPLC method is simple, fast, accurate and reproducible. It is suitable for determination of cordycepin content of artificial Chinese caterpillar fungus culture medium and brown rice recombinant rice. Keywords: Recombinant rice, Cordycepin, Chinese caterpillar fungus, Aweto, Cordyceps militaris