Chinese scientists are now capable of manufacturing a substitute for wild caterpillar fungus, a endangered Tibetan herb known for having cancer-fighting properties.
The science department of northwest China's Qinghai Province announced on Friday that after 11 years of research, its scientists have successfully extracted and cultivated caterpillar fungus to produce an artificial substitute.
"The research was sponsored by the provincial government, as it wanted to stop depletion of the wild herb," Zhang Chaoyuan, deputy director of the Qinghai science department, was quoted by the Global Times as saying.
A single stalk of the fungus, also known in China as "winter worm" and "summer grass", costs the same price as gold, the Global Times said in its report on Saturday. The wild herb has been a key source of income for ethnic Tibetans living in the region.
Found only on the Tibet Plateau, the caterpillar fungus is reported to be effective against cancer cells and boosts the immune system.
However, extensive harvesting of the fungus, which has a long growing cycle, has led to serious damage to the fragile ecology of the plateau.
Zhang said scientists collected the wild fungus from the Tibetan prefecture of Yushu, which is 4,800 meters above sea level, and used it to produce an artificial substitute that shares the herb's medicinal properties.
The substitute product has a 97-percent DNA similarity with the wild herb, according to the research firm Qinghai Everest Cordyceps Pharmaceutical.
According to Zhang, the government provided financial and technical support to the project, which is projected to have an annual output of 200 tons of fermented caterpillar fungus and byproducts.
The processed health product earned 135 million yuan ($20 million) in revenue during a trial production, according to the Xinhua News Agency.