Identification of Ganoderma lucidum reishi in herbal supplements by PCR using markers of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region

Ganoderma lucidum is one of the most important therapeutic mushroom known in Iran and the world. In this study, due to the lack of standard and specific instructions for quality control of mushroom supplements, a molecular method based on Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) for detection of mushroom species in supplements has been presented.

Eight samples of two commercial brands of Ganoderma lucidium mushroom supplements were prepared from pharmacies. PCR test was performed using DNA extracted from capsules. Then, sequencing was performed from PCR product and the results of sequencing were compared with Genbank and their phylogenetic tree was plotted with all known sequences from Iran in Genebank.

DNA extraction from the capsules for PCR were optimized and PCR products were observed on agarose gel coordinated to the expected sizes. Blast analysis and phylogenetic tree of the sequences showed that the mushroom in one of the commercial samples was in full accordance with its label which was Ganoderma lucidum and the other did not show this conformity and was Ganoderma resinaceum instead of Ganodema lucidum.

Due to the large differences in the quantity and quality of effective compounds in the various mushroom supplements available in the market, if the ingredients cannot be morphologically or biochemically confirmed, the best successful and cast effective method would be molecular method based on mushroom DNA and phylogenetic analysis to specify it species.