Mushroom enthusiast grows zombie fungus on his own BLOOD and SKIN - and then eats it

Cordyceps, an oddly trendy fungus that feeds disconnected nan dead, has been a staple of Chinese medicine for complete 1,500 years and much precocious has go cardinal to nan zombie apocalypse connected HBO's deed video game-adaptation The Last of Us.

But really does it stack up arsenic a ray snack? 

One TikTok user, who goes by nan sanction @Southernspore connected nan platform, had nan courage to effort it retired pinch an added zombie twist: 'I grew it disconnected my ain humor and skin.'

The enterprising mushroom-lover moreover put a portion of his fungal-infected dormant tegument nether nan microscope to show viewers nan cordyceps' 'hyphae' — its branching, filament-like structures — increasing connected a fare of these erstwhile bits of himself.

'They each person this disgusting yellowish tinge,' he said, earlier taking a fewer agelong chews. 

'I'm not going to swallow it, but (um) it's strangely sweet. It's beautiful good,' he said. 

'I would eat it again.'  

'I'd beryllium willing to spot really that sensation compares to normal grown cordyceps,' @southernspore, whose existent sanction is believed to be Jacob Riley Hood, told his TikTok followers.

Hood extracted his ain humor and utilized ripped, calloused tegument from disconnected nan palms of his hands arsenic nan substrate upon which his 'zombie mushrooms' could feed.

After nan cordyceps grew to a hardened puck of mycelium (a fungal root-like building of hyphae), to astir nan size and quality of a creepy coconut macaroon, Hood trim it unfastened to look for nan bits of his ain tegument supporting it all.

Next, he showed his TikTok followers what an mean wide of cordyceps looks like, grown disconnected of a little Halloween-appropriate substrate.

'This is what a normal turn looks like, compared to a quality tegument and humor grow,' Hood explained.

'I'd decidedly do this again,' Hood opined, adding, 'next clip though, not pinch my ain blood. Most apt animal humor would beryllium easier to do than extracting my ain blood.'

'Bone and nutrient besides would beryllium an absorbing research to do.'

Previous research — conducted by a squad of much serious-minded world aesculapian researchers successful Korea and Egypt — has shown nan cordyceps fungus tin beryllium grown successful a lab to much effectively and economically nutrient nan compound cordycepin for usage arsenic a crab treatment.

But because of nan fungi's spooky evolutionary history and penchant for feasting connected nan corpses of insects and different creatures, cordyceps will ne'er suffer its sci-fi/horror movie reputation.

Earlier this year, João Araújo, adjunct curator successful mycology astatine The New York Botanical Garden, explained to DailyMail.com that cordyceps antecedently evolved to let nan fungus to move ants into zombies.

'We hypothesize that astir 45 cardinal years ago, nan fungus infected nan first ant,' Araujo said.

'The cordyceps was [first] successful beetles and past jumped to ants because some happened to beryllium [in nan same] character trunk.'

Araújo added that astir 35 ophiocordyceps fungi are known to move insects into zombies, —and that these are recovered successful nan US, Brazil and Japan, arsenic good arsenic parts of Africa.

HBO's The Last of Us has sparked fears of nan real-world fungus causing nan adjacent pandemic, which van Rhijn said would not hap successful our lifetime, but he besides notes that we should 'never opportunity never.'

'I americium not going to opportunity never, particularly successful this section erstwhile we've seen crazy things happen, particularly really it is portrayed successful nan bid it needs to flooded a batch of hurdles for a fungus for illustration that to infect humans,' he said.

But successful nan meantime, humans are perfectly tin of returning nan flesh-eating favor, by enjoying some cordyceps and their wellness benefits themselves.