Methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and 2-propanol, at 1.5% (v/v), enhanced the growth and polysaccharide production of Ganoderma lucidum. Ethanol was the most effective at 1.5% (v/v) for increasing the biomass production, however, the maximal polysaccharide concentration was produced with 2% (v/v) ethanol in the medium. There was no new polysaccharide component produced by the addition of ethanol.

A new sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of copper ions based on the copper ion assisted etching of Au@Ag nanoparticles was developed in this work. Since copper ions could greatly catalyze the etching process of the silver shell of Au@Ag nanoparticles in the presence of thiosulfate solutions, leading to an obvious decrease of the linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) signals of silver, the concentration of the copper ions, therefore, can be measured. Under the optimized conditions, the electrochemical sensor exhibited excellent sensitivity and selectivity for Cu(2+), with wide linear ranges of 1 nM to 100 μM, and the detection limit of 0.3 nM. In addition, this method was successfully applied for the analysis of Cu(2+) in river water and exhibited good analytical performance.

Microbial fermentation and transformation of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an important way to achieve a combination of modern biotechnology and TCM's research, and gaining an increasing worldwide popularity as a new type of traditional Chinese medicinal processing approach to develop pharmaceuticals in therapeutic applications. This new technology not only broadens the scope of TCM's research and application, but also provides us a new idea and way to understand and use TCM scientifically and effectively. This paper reviews the current status of microbial fermentation and transformation of TCM at home and abroad, mainly from TCM's ideas, principles, existed problems and significances of research. The focus is on medicinal fungi fermentation and transformation of TCM. In the discussion of specific microorganisms, the emphasis is placed on Grifola frondosa (G. frondosa or Maitake) and Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum), for which experimental work has been on-going actively in the authors' laboratories. Other selected microorganisms will be discussed only briefly, aiming primarily to illustrate the current status of research in this area.

Gastrodin (GA), p-hydroxylbenzaldehyde (HBA), p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol (gastrodigenin, HA) and parishin not only are the major active ingredients of Rhizoma gastrodiae, but exist transformed relations from each other throughout the fermentation process of Grifola frondosa in this work. We had found that parishin (non-free gastrodin) almost could completely transformed into gastrodin (GA, free gastrodin) after R. gastrodiae alcohol extract was sterilized by moist heat (121 °C, 30 min), but before was added into submerged cultivation of G. frondosa. However, interestingly and importantly, gastrodin re-synthesized of parishin after R. gastrodiae alcohol extract's addition into submerged cultivation of G. frondosa. In addition, the reduction of p-hydroxylbenzaldehyde and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol in G. frondosa fermentation process reconfirmed that the G. frondosa strain 51616 really could synthesize gastrodin into parishin by submerged fermentation. This paper firstly also reported G. frondosa's effects on R. gastrodiae.

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