A prized caterpillar fungus that is more valuable than gold and is nicknamed “Himalayan Viagra” in Asia, where it is seen as a wonder drug, is becoming more difficult to find due to climate change, researchers said on Monday.
People in China and Nepal have been killed in clashes throughout the years over the elusive fungus yarchagumba, known formally as Ophiocordyceps sinensis.
Although it has no scientifically proven benefits, people who boil yarchagumba in water to make tea believe that it cures everything from impotence to cancer.
It is “one of the world’s most valuable biological commodities, providing a crucial source of income for hundreds of thousands of collectors,” said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
In the past few decades, the fungus has skyrocketed in popularity and prices have soared — it can fetch up to three times the price of gold in Beijing, the researchers said.
While many have suspected over-harvesting was the reason for its scarcity, the researchers wanted to find out more, so they interviewed about four dozen harvesters, collectors and traders of the prized fungus.
They also examined previously published scientific literature, including interviews with more than 800 people in Nepal, Bhutan, India and China, to understand its apparent decline.
Weather patterns, geographic factors and environmental conditions were also analyzed to create a map of yarchagumba production in the region.
“Using data spanning nearly two decades and four countries revealed that caterpillar fungus production is declining,” the report said.
The finding “is important because it calls attention to how highly valuable species, like caterpillar fungus, are susceptible not only to overharvesting, as is often the focus, but also to climate change,” said Kelly Hopping, lead author of the study.
“This means that even if people start reducing the amount that they harvest, production will likely continue to dwindle as a result of ongoing climate change,” said Hopping, who conducted the work while a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University.
Researchers were unable to tell whether over-harvesting or climate change had a larger effect.
The cone-shaped fungus is only found above an elevation of 3,000m, and forms when the parasitic fungus lodges itself in a caterpillar, slowly killing it.
To grow, it needs a specific climate with winter temperatures below freezing but where the soil is not permanently frozen.
“Such conditions are typically present at the margin of permafrost areas,” the report said.
“Given that winter temperatures have warmed significantly from 1979 to 2013 across much of its range, and especially in Bhutan, its populations are likely to have been negatively affected,” it said.
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