Forensic Analysis of Wild Toxic and Edible Amanita Mushrooms by Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

For many years, the foraging and consumption of wild mushrooms has been practised in different parts of the world. Despite having various health benefits, few mushroom species are known for causing toxicity as well. In forensic casework conditions, samples from mushroom poisoning cases can be found in dried or powdered form. So, it becomes necessary to characterize mushroom species for identification purposes. In the present study, volatile fractions of five wild toxic and edible Amanita mushroom species (Amanita muscaria, Amanita pantherina, Amanita caesarea, Amanita subglobosa and Amanita porphyria) were analyzed so as to identify compounds for the characterization of selected mushroom species. The obtained volatile fractions were broadly classified into various chemical classes: alcohols, aldehydes, acids, esters, nitrogen-containing compounds, ketones and miscellaneous. The following compounds; octadecanoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid (z)-, ethane, 1-chloro-1-fluoro- were the most abundant. The present approach utilizing GC-MS, intends to obtain a fingerprint of each sample for discrimination purposes. Also, this work is the first study on the forensic analysis of methanol-soluble components of Amanita mushroom species from the North-Western Himalaya, India.

Keywords

• forensic science
• genus amanita
• wild mushrooms
• toxicity
• gc-ms