A review of research on Chinese Tuber species

Abstract

Truffles are abundant in some regions of China. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1980s that Tuber species were discovered by Chinese mycologists. In recent years, international truffle markets have shown an increasing interest in the import of Chinese Tuber. These truffles serve as a complement to European truffles due to their lower prices and their greater availability in a deficit market. However, Chinese truffles have been the subject of fraudulent commercial practices, and these could have a negative effect on truffle culture. These concerns have been behind numerous recent studies designed to obtain detailed information about Chinese Tuber species. Unfortunately, many of these studies are not published in English, and are dispersed throughout the specific local or national bibliography and proceedings of specialized truffle conferences. In view of the need to expand current knowledge of Chinese Tuber species, we present a comprehensive summary of the taxonomy, ecology, mycorrhizae, genetics, biochemistry, and cultivation of Chinese Tuber species. We also provide a synthetic taxonomy and morphological characterization of 16 Chinese Tuber species in order to assist in their verification and monitoring.

Natural production of Tuber aestivum in central Spain: Pinus spp. versus Quercus spp. brûlés

“…In this regard, it has been observed that Pinus nigra subsp. salzmannii produces carpophores of Tuber aestivum (= uncinatum) (Pacioni 1987;Chevalier and Frochot, 1997;Granetti et al, 2005;Montecchi and Sarasini, 2000;Zambonelli et al 2000;Riousset et al, 2001;García-Montero et al, 2010). However, little is known about the actual capacity of those Pinus species for producing significant amounts of truffles with commercial interest.…”

Chinese Tuber aestivum sensu lato in Europe

“…Chinese T. aestivum was first reported by Mao [7,8] but without any indication of its location. Moreover, there are no collections deposited in any Chinese herbarium and this taxon was not mentioned in a more recent publication of the same author [9].…”

“…Since then, increasing quantities have been exported to the international market, which has *Address correspondence to this author at the DIPROVAL, Facoltà di Agraria, Università di Bologna, Viale Fanin 46, 40127 Bologna, Italy; Tel: +39 0512096579; E-mail: zambonel@agrsci.unibo.it created concern and also interest in the study of these Chinese Tuber species [12]. Chinese truffles have been regularly shipped to Europe, Japan, United States and Australia [7,12,13], due in part to the fact that they are much cheaper than European truffles. T. indicum sensu lato is the predominant Asiatic species exported to the international market and a small quantity of Tuber pseudoexcavatum has been found to be mixed with T. indicum sensu lato in shipments [6,[14][15][16].…”

“…T. indicum sensu lato is the predominant Asiatic species exported to the international market and a small quantity of Tuber pseudoexcavatum has been found to be mixed with T. indicum sensu lato in shipments [6,[14][15][16]. In 1997, García-Montero [7] was the first to recognize T. aestivum ascomata in shipments imported from China but only recently T. aestivum is also being sold on the international market [17,18].…”

A Box-behnken Design for Characterizing Chinese Truffles (Tuber indicum) Aroma by HS-SPME-GC-MS

“…About 60 different kinds of truffles are distributed in the world, most of which grow in Europe, particularly in Italy, France, Spain (Wang & Marcone, 2011). They are known as "diamonds", with a high economic value, which are the most expensive mushrooms in the world (Wang & Marcone, 2011;García-Montero, Díaz, Di Massimo, & García-Abril, 2010).…”