Characterization of the basidiomycetes Thelephora ganbajun Zang and Termitomyces albuminosus (Berk.) Heim by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The basidiomycetes Thelephora ganbajun Zang and Termitomyces albuminosus (Berk.) Heim are two of the most favorite edible mushrooms in Yunnan Province, Southwest of China. In this paper, Fourier transform infrared speciroseopy (FTIR) was used to characterize the fruiting bodies of the two wild growing edible mushrooms. The results show that each mushroom has its characteristic infrared spectrum, in which the major peaks are attributed to proteins and polysaccharides. The spectra indicate that the poiysaccharides of the two mushrooms contain, both. α- and β-glycosidic linkage. A characteristic band of Thelephora ganbajun is an obvious band at about 1763 cm -1 , which indicates that the mushroom contain oil. Differences are observed in the spectra of different parts of the fruiting body of Termitomyces albuminosus . According to the differences of the characteristic spectra peaks and absorbance ratios, the different parts of mushroom can be discriminated. The results suggest that the different species of mushrooms might be identified by the vibrational spectral features of the different parts of the fruiting bodies of mushrooms.