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 (r² = 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