Untargeted GC × GC/HRMS profiling of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in dried edible mushrooms supported by multivariate statistical tools.

Mushrooms are valuable for their nutritional and medicinal properties. Although composition and properties of mushroom useful components are intensively studied, the main efforts are applied to rather large bioactive molecules: vitamins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, proteins, while volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds attracted less attention. To close this lacuna, GC × GCHRMS analysis based on SPME was conducted. Over 500 volatile and semi-volatile compounds were identified using NIST-23 library search, manual spectra interpretation, and retention indices in the samples of six popular edible mushrooms: snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis), chestnut (Pholiota adiposa), matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake), shiitake (Lentinus edodes), stinkhorn fungus (Dictyophora indusiate), and wood ear fungus (Auricularia spp). With pronounced differences in the composition of VOCs and SVOCs among the mushroom species, unique biomarkers for each of them were identified. Application of ChromaTOF.Tile followed by PCA enabled reliable chemometric distinguishing among the studied samples.