Novel Arsenic Markers for Discriminating Wild and Cultivated Cordyceps

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2018-10, Vol.23 (11), p.2804
• Main Authors: Guo, Lian-Xian, Zhang, Gui-Wei, Li, Qing-Qing, Xu, Xiao-Ming, Wang, Jiang-Hai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adulterants; Arsenic; arsenic markers; Cordyceps militaris; Functional foods & nutraceuticals; Fungi; Hazardous materials; Health promotion; High-performance liquid chromatography; Liquid chromatography; Markers; Ophiocordyceps sinensis; Principal components analysis; principle component analysis (PCA); Speciation
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules23112804

has been utilized in China and adjacent countries for thousands of years as a rare functional food to promote health and treat diverse chronic diseases. In recent years, adulterants are usually identified in the processed products of wild . However, the effective adulteration examination has to be additionally performed except their routine test, and accordingly is time- and money-consuming. Recently, arsenic determination has become a necessary test for confirming whether the concentrations of inorganic arsenic are over the limit. In this work, the contents of total arsenic and As species in cultivated , and other edible fungi were determined by ICP-MS and HPLC-ICP-MS. The results suggest that the As speciation exhibits a species-specific behavior, and accompanies the effect of the As background. The proportions of unknown organic As and contents of total As may be considered as sensitive markers for discriminating wild . This result provides a novel clue for discriminating wild and artificially cultivated mushrooms/their products, with emphasis on arsenic markers for authenticating wild .