“There are over 680 documented species of the sac fungus genus Ophiocordyceps, and one of the best known of these is Ophiocordyceps sinensis, colloquially known as caterpillar fungus. The fungus is known in Tibetan as yartsa gunbu or yatsa gunbu. O. sinensis is known in the West as a medicinal mushroom and its use has a long history in Traditional Chinese medicine as well as Traditional Tibetan medicine. The highly valuable fungus-caterpillar combination is hand-collected and is used as an aphrodisiac and as a treatment for a variety of ailments from fatigue to cancer”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Nomads dig for Chinese caterpillar fungus from a mountain May 25, 2007 in Guide County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, China. Nomads can earn about 2,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan (about U.S. $260 to $653 ) through their work during the fifty-day Chinese caterpillar fungus gathering season. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

A blurred panaroma of Roemerberg historic center is reflected in a soap bubble in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 09 July 2015. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/EPA)

Ricky Rebel attends the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

A young man with an amputated leg poses for a photograph standing by his broken artificial limb in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria March 20, 2016. Two university students forced to interrupt their studies have learnt to make and fit hundreds of new limbs in the past four years in opposition-held areas of Syria. A mobile clinic operating from a truck has gone some way to improve access to treatment. While most patients are between 15 and 45, the clinic also helps children and the elderly with replacement limbs. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

HIV-positive 71-year-old Sylverio Hachiploa (R) talks with caregivers Glandwel Muleya (L) and Sister Abigail Mwaka Mazuba (C) in his thatched hut during a visit by a home-based care team in the village of Nedwmba, south of the Chikuni Mission in the south of Zambia February 23, 2015. The caregivers in the Jesuit-run home-based care project at the Chikuni Mission run a capacity-building and empowerment project at the household level, offering training and assistance in crop-growing and animal rearing, as well as offering companionship, pastoral care and monitoring of the antiretroviral treatment compliance of HIV-AIDS patients. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)