Cordyceps have a history of medicinal use spanning millennia in parts of Asia .
The Cordyceps has been derived from two Latin words, i.e., cord and ceps meaning club and head, respectively. Cordyceps militaris belongs to the phylum Ascomycota classified in the order hypocreales, as spores are produced internally inside a sac, called ascus . It is an entomopathogenic fungus having an annual appearance which often grows parasitically on lepidopteron larvae and pupae of insects and spiders. It normally inhabits on the surface of insects pupae in winters and leading to the formation of fruiting body in summers justifying its name as “winter-worm summer-grass”. There have been a variety of pharmacologically active compounds (e.g., Cordycepin) reported from Cordyceps sp. Cordycepin has received much attention due to its broad-spectrum biological activity. It is known to interfere with various biochemical and molecular processes including purine biosynthesis . Cordyceps has been included as one of the growing numbers of fungal traditional Chinese medicine (FTCM) used as cures for modern diseases with many products available commercially. Due to recent advancements in pharmaceutical biotechniques, it is possible to isolate bioactive compounds from Cordyceps and make it available in powder as well as in capsular form. Cordyceps and its product have remarkable clinical health effects including action on hepatic, renal, cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, sexual, immunological systems, besides having anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities >. the active principles of C. militaris are beneficial to act anti-aging, anti-tumour/ anti-leukemic, anti-proliferative, anti-metastatic anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-protozoal, insecticidal, larvicidal, anti-fibrotic, steroidogenic, hypoglacaemic, hypolipidaemic, anti-angiogenetic, anti-diabetic, anti-HIV, anti-malarial, anti-fatigue, neuroprotective, liver-protective, as well as pneumo-protective, let alone their other synergistic activities, which let it be marketable in the western countries as over-the-counter medicine.