A simple and effective method to discern the true commercial Chinese cordyceps from counterfeits

Abstract

The Chinese cordyceps, a complex of the fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis and its species-specific host insects, is also called “DongChongXiaCao” in Chinese. Habitat degradation in recent decades and excessive harvesting by humans has intensified its scarcity and increased the prices of natural populations. Some counterfeits are traded as natural Chinese cordyceps for profit, causing confusion in the marketplace. To promote the safe use of Chinese cordyceps and related products, a duplex PCR method for specifically identifying raw Chinese cordyceps and its primary products was successfully established. Chinese cordyceps could be precisely identified by detecting an internal transcribed spacer amplicon from O. sinensis and a cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 amplicon from the host species, at a limit of detection as low as 32 pg. Eleven commercial samples were purchased and successfully tested to further verify that the developed duplex PCR method could be reliably used to identify Chinese cordyceps. It provides a new simple way to discern true commercial Chinese cordyceps from counterfeits in the marketplace. This is an important step toward achieving an authentication method for this Chinese medicine. The methodology and the developmental strategy can be used to authenticate other traditional Chinese medicinal materials.

Systematic screening and structural characterization of dipeptides using offline 2D LC-LTQ-Orbitrap MS: A case study of Cordyceps sinensis

“…However, the differentiation of these species based on nonspecific nucleotides and amino acids is difficult [ 21 , 22 ]. Some attempts have adopted the duplex PCR method to identify C. sinensis ; however, the PCR method is limited to the raw material and primary products [ 23 ]. To uncover the differences in the composition of dipeptides among different Cordyceps species and discover effective dipeptide markers to differentiate authentic C. sinensis and their substitutes, a targeted metabolomics strategy based on dipeptides was adopted in this study.…”

A Rapid and Efficient Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Assay for the Authentication of Food Supplements Based on Maitake (Grifola Frondosa)

“…As the market for mushroom-based products grows, so does the need for more rapid and accurate controls to prevent fraud. Little attention has been put on this problem and very few works take advantage of molecular, DNA-based techniques to authenticate nutraceuticals containing mushrooms (Loyd et al, 2018 ; Raja et al, 2017 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ).…”

“…As the market for mushroom-based products grows, so does the need for more rapid and accurate controls to prevent fraud. Little attention has been put on this problem and very few works take advantage of molecular, DNAbased techniques to authenticate nutraceuticals containing mushrooms (Loyd et al, 2018;Raja et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2020). The goal of this study was the set-up and validation of a rapid and specific LAMP assay, coupled with an optimized protocol for DNA extraction from food supplements, aimed to quickly detect and authenticate Maitake mushroom in fungal-based food supplements.…”

The potential role of medicinal mushrooms as prebiotics in aquaculture: A review

“…Cordyceps sinensis is an entomopathogenic fungus of the phylum Ascomycetes, that has been used as traditional Chinese medicine and is distributed in the alpine regions of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in China. 175,176 Polysaccharides are reported as major bioactive compounds in C. sinensis. The cost was around USD 20,000-40,000/kg, with a high market value.…”