It has been reported that fermented products (FPs) prepared from sweet potato-shochu distillery by-product suppressed weight gain and decreased serum cholesterol levels in mice under normal dietary conditions. Furthermore, from the information gained from the above data regarding health benefits of the FPs, the aim of this study was evaluating the effects of dietary FPs on lipid accumulation and gut microbiota in mice with or without cholesterol-load in the diet. C57BL/6N mice were fed normal (CO) diet, CO with 10% FPs (CO + FPs) diet, cholesterol loaded (HC) diet, or HC with 10% FPs (HC + FPs) diet for 8 weeks. The mice were then euthanized, and blood samples, tissue samples, and feces were collected. The adipose tissue weight and liver triglyceride levels in the HC + FPs diet groups were significantly reduced compared to that in the HC diet groups. However, FPs significantly increased the serum non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, the ratio of non-HDL-C to HDL-C and hepatic total cholesterol levels in mice fed cholesterol-loaded diet compared with that of the HC diet group. Since dietary FPs significantly decreased the protein expression levels of cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase 1 in the HC + FPs diet groups, the cholesterol accumulation in FPs group may be explained by insufficient catabolism from cholesterol to bile acid. In addition, the dietary FPs tended to increase Clostridium cluster IV and XIVa, which are butyrate-producing bacteria. Related to the result, n-butyrate was significantly increased in the CO + FPs and the HC + FPs diet groups compared to their respective control groups. These findings suggested that dietary FPs modulated the lipid pool and gut microbiota.

Cordyceps militaris, a genus of ascomycete fungai, is usually used as traditional Chinese medicine. We as characterized by DNA fragmentation, the activation of caspase-3, and the cleavage of poly(ADP)ribose polymerase(PARP) . The major bioactive component is clarified as cordycepin using HPLC, FT-IR, and NMR analysis.

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Cordyceps militaris, a genus of ascomycete fungai, is used in traditional Chinese medicine. We manufactured cordyceps militaris spirits, termed Kinkirishima(SCS) , by soaking Cordyceps militaris in sweetpotato shochu. This study aims to clarify the cancer chemopreventive effects of SCS extract by investigating the proliferative inhibition and apoptosis induction in human leukemia cells(HL-60). Based on a bioactivity-guided separation, we found that Fraction 1C-Ⅲ(F1C-Ⅲ)from SCS had the strongest inhibitory effects on the proliferation of HL-60 cells. Molecular data showed that F1C-Ⅲ induced apoptosis of HL-60 cells as characterized by DNA fragmentation, Annexin V-FITC assay, the activation of caspase-3, and cleavage of poly(ADP)ribose polymerase(PARP). The major bioactive component of SCS was finally clarified as cordycepin using a LCMS-IT-TOF analysis.

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