Triacylglycerols profile and principal component analysis as a chemometric tool to identify wild edible mushroom genera
Conference Paper
Overview
Overview
abstract
The Northeast of Portugal is among the European regions with high divers ity of wild
mushrooms, some with recognized gastronomic value. Due to the high resemblance among
mushroom species belonging to the same genus, finding a distinctive chemometric marker
to identify mushroom species is a mandatory task. The lipidic fraction of a natural product
has a characteristic pattern of triaeylglyccrol (TAG), comprising specific information due
to the genetic control of the stereospecific distribution of fatty acids (FA) on the glycerol
molecule, which is typical for each species. Principal component analysis (PCA) was
previously applied to classify mushroom samples according to their fatty acids profile.121
However, despite TAG profile was used before to assess the authenticity of oils,l31 it was
not used as taxonomical marker. Accordingly, TAG profile was evaluated in 30 wild
mushroom species and the results were classified by PCA to identify their discriminant
ability. TAG profiles obtained by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to an
evaporative light scattering detector showed significant differences among species. The
PCA biplot (1) showed that TAG profiles recorded for different mushroom genera may be
used as an effective differentiating tool, especially when lowering the taxonomical rank,
indicating that TAG profile is most related with the lowest ranks. Ln conclusion, this
chemometric approach might be used as a practical tool to identify mushroom species.
